The trampoline is dead

Here’s what’s left of the trampoline…

My wife sent the following in an email, describing the incident…

Our trampoline committed suicide last night. And it tried to take out a 15-year-old boy driving by in a truck too. Apparently, the wind picked it up like a parachute and hurled it into the road. The boy swerved and got stuck in the ditch. And all this happened 2 minutes after the power went out for the entire road. (It was out from 9 pm to 4 am.) So Steve was out there in the rain, sloshing through mud, with the only flashlight we had managed to find, trying to help the guy.

Meanwhile, our two-1/2 year old was fascinated by the whole thing. When he came out of his room asking for lights I told him the power was out. As we walked through the house, he said, “Ooohhh, mine power out too. Ooohh, Sister’s power out too. And he named everybody in the house, saying, “Oooh, so and so’s power out too.” He really wanted to go outside to help Daddy. It was almost as good as watching the Wiggles – looking through the window at the big truck with blinky lights pulling the little truck out of the ditch. “Ooohh, it can go now!” He wasn’t afraid of the dark at all, but we ended up sending him to bed with a flashlight. He thought it was the best night ever. I’m glad someone enjoyed our power outage.

Can you imagine that sprattle-legged thing rolling toward you???  Good defensive driving I think.

It seems pretty obvious now that I should have had the trampoline anchored, seeing as we live in a supernatural wind vortex or something. A friend told me the day after it happened that he has meant to ask me whether it was anchored or not. Well…that’s the epitome of “a day late and dollar short.”

I’m sorry that the trampoline is dead, but everyone’s fortunate that no one got hurt.

—>UPDATE:  We actually did buy a kit made to hold it down.