Hot Summer Pool Blues

So at the end of summer last year Rene went out and got one of those 12' pools that are about 4' deep to satisfy his French yearning for a pool (people in Quebec do not have A/C, they all have pools). The girls have been on me to get it out this year so this morning I hauled it out, cleaned it off, cleared some space, found all the pieces and assembled it. Lets just say it took most of the morning and I probably could have filled it with the sweat that was pouring off my face. Finally got it all together, blew up the air-tube-ring-thing that sits around the top and stuck in the hose to let it fill. When I went to check it I noticed the air ring had lost some air. I hadn't stuck the push-plug-thingy all the way in the hole where you blow it up so I thought that was the problem. Blew it up again, made sure the plug-thingy was all the way in and went and made lunch. After putting Lucienne down for a nap I thought I'd check in again and lo-and-behold the air ring had lost about half its air. Unfortunately, that air-tube-ring-thing is pretty integral to keeping the water in the pool. I also noticed a sprinkler action happening over by the hoses that filter the water and keep it moving. Needless to say, finding the pin-like hole that is leaking air is going to be next to impossible. I'm going to try to maintain what's there for when the girls get home from school but after today it's getting hauled to the dump. I feel really guilty about filling up our dump with this pool that wasn't suppose to be a disposable-one-summer use pool. I also am not leaping to get another one. Throwing out one pool is enough. We're just going to have to find other ways to keep cool this summer...like air-conditioning. Have I ever been grateful for that over the last few days of heat wave. There's also a sprinkler and water guns (I can already see Amelia's eyes rolling with these suggestions as she pouts about our broken pool). My poor, hot, under-privileged children.