Morgan's Trampoline

A couple of years ago we bought a trampoline for Morgan. It was nothing fancy mind you, a basic twelve foot circular trampoline with a safety net around it. Since we have no place to store it, it has remained outside from the day we bought it. This has worked out great, until this winter.

One night during a heavy wind, the tramp learned how to fly, and it went zipping down the length of our yard. It appears that it rolled a time or two, as the poles for the safety net were scattered and one was bent up somewhat.

That must have been some wind; this thing weighs 125-150 pounds.

Saturday was so warm, such a beautiful day to be alive. Keri and I spent about an hour checking the trampoline out thoroughly and putting it back together. I straightened the bent pole, even. I figured someone should test it to make sure it was safe for the kids, so naturally I started jumping up and down on it like a 12-year old.

It was fun, it was safe. We gave it the official seal of approval.

It turned out to be a busy day, so Morgan never had a chance to try it out for herself. She did get her circus physical, and signed up for four acts, one of which is trampoline.

Sunday we went to circus roundup to meet the trainers and make sure all the paperwork was in place. She affirmed her commitment to the acts, and I was glad that I fixed her trampoline up; I know she’ll get a lot of use out of it.

It rained all day Sunday, so the kid didn’t get to use the tramp yet. Around 6 o’clock we had a gully washer; such a torrential downpour as I hadn’t seen for a few years. We also had heavy winds. This was not a tornado, just heavy winds; so heavy in fact that in one community the wind picked up a school bus (empty of kids) and tossed it onto a building! Not into the building, ON it.

Have you figured out where I’m going with this yet?

Morgan looked out the window and yelled that her trampoline was taking off. Did it ever! It flew 40-50 yards, hit the ground rolling and blew into I don’t know how many pieces. Glorious!

The wind only lasted about fifteen minutes, the rain about an hour. Then we went out to pick up the pieces from the neighbor’s yard. Ouch! The poles for the safety net were scattered in a debris field about forty feet long, as well as leg poles, springs, and even some of the poles from the circular part.

A lot of the poles were bent; some were shaped like hairpins, with one end bent all the way over to touch the other end. One of the poles from the circular part was ripped apart. I do not mean to say that it came apart at the seam, that’s what the other poles did. No this literally ripped apart in a place where there was no seam.

We dragged it back to our yard, collected all of the pieces and put them on it. This mangled mass of messed-up metal now looks like a UFO crash site. It’s hard to believe it was once something nice.

Now that thing weighed, as I said earlier, around 125-150 pounds. The ironic part was what happened to the two trash cans I had set out to the curb. They are plastic garbage cans, nothing special at all, filled with leaves they weighed in at about twenty pounds each. They didn’t budge. Didn’t move a freaking inch! Go figure!