Alright, so I wanted to share what I did the other day. We had a small get-together planned, and I figured, what’s a party without some floating balloons, right? So, I decided I was gonna blow up balloons with helium. Seemed easy enough.
First thing, I had to actually get the helium. I went down to one of those party supply stores. They had these helium tanks, different sizes. I didn’t need a giant one, so I grabbed a smallish, disposable tank. It wasn’t too heavy, which was good. Also picked up a bag of assorted color latex balloons. The usual stuff.
Got back home. Pulled the tank out of its cardboard box. It came with this little black plastic nozzle. I had to screw that onto the tank valve. Twisted it on there, nice and snug. I glanced at the instructions on the tank, just a few pictures really. Looked pretty simple: open valve, put balloon on nozzle, inflate.
So, I grabbed my first balloon, a blue one. I gave it a little stretch, not sure if that actually helps but I always do it. Then I slipped the neck of the balloon over the nozzle. Made sure it was on there good so the helium wouldn’t just escape everywhere.
This was the moment of truth. I took a slight breath, not sure why, and then I started to turn the green handle on the tank to open the valve. You have to do it slowly, I figured. As soon as I opened it a bit, I pressed down on the black nozzle, or bent it, that’s how this one worked to release the gas.
And whoosh! Well, more like a soft hiss. The helium started flowing into the balloon. It’s pretty cool to watch it just swell up, much faster than blowing it up with your lungs. You gotta keep an eye on it though. I almost made the first one too big. I was scared it was gonna pop right in my face.
I stopped the flow just in time. Quickly, I pulled the balloon off the nozzle, pinching the neck tight. Then, the classic move, tying a knot. My fingers always feel clumsy doing this part. But, success! The blue balloon was full and straining to go up. I let it go for a second, and yup, it floated straight to the ceiling. Nice.
After that, it was pretty much just repeating the process. Grab a balloon. Stretch it (maybe). Put it on the nozzle. Fill it. Try not to pop it. Tie it. It gets a bit monotonous after the tenth one, I gotta say. My thumb started to get a little sore from bending that nozzle thingy repeatedly.
I made a whole bunch. Red, yellow, green, blue. The room started to look pretty festive with all these things bobbing around. I then attached some ribbons to them so we could actually hold onto them or tie them to things, otherwise, they’d all just be stuck on the ceiling, which isn’t super useful.
In the end, it worked out. The balloons looked great. The helium tank still had some left, so that was good. It’s definitely way easier than trying to blow up that many balloons by mouth, that’s for sure. Though, my fingers were a bit raw from tying all those knots. But hey, floating balloons!