Christmas Inflatable Takes a Swim

So we have these big outdoor inflatable Christmas decorations. One is this huge carousel, about 7′ tall and about 8′ diameter. Another is a 12′ long and 6′ high thing with a Christmas tree, a polar bear, a penguin sitting on an igloo, and a snowman – this scene has lights that flicker in time to the Christmas music it plays. Another is just a short thing, about 4′ tall, and it is two penguins revolving around and around.
And then there is the newest one, which I bought at the end of last season.
This is about 6′ tall and about the same around. It is a Christmas ornament with three penguins – seems to be a theme here – rotating around inside it. Very cool.
So yesterday, I put the long one one and the small one in the front courtyard, as always, and then took the two big ones, the carousel and the ornament, around to the back of the house where the pool is. I set up the carousel and anchored it as usual. But then I just plugged in the ornament one to get it inflating, while I went to the store.
Now, I want to say up front, it wasn’t very windy when I left, but I was gone a long time, and when I got back, I found the ornament inflatable floating in the pool. Luckily, when the wind blew it away from the wall it unplugged itself.
So I go to drag it out, and my God, you can not believe how heavy that thing was with all that water that had gotten into it!!! I finally managed to drag it out, no doubt suffering a hernia in the process, and then gave it artificial respiration to get most of the water out, but it still had a lot of water in it, including in the blower, which we may recall runs off of electricity, not to mention the lights that are inside it and the little motorized thingy on top which makes it turn,
Well, to make a long story longer, I dragged it out to our shed, dried the motor with compressed air, let it drain some more, and risked electrocution to get it working again. Finally, 24 hours later, it is finally dry enough to operate correctly, although I suspect that the little penguins are a bit waterlogged.
Tomorrow it goes back on display, with proper tie downs!!!
BTW, I must say these inflatables are really something. I love that even with a tear or two in them, they will still fill up and work.
Also, I really love turning them on in the morning and watching them inflate. I have no life!