I know that I shouldn’t complain. We have been under drought conditions for a while now. Our winter, snow-and-ice-mageddon aside, was pretty darn dry, and spring wasn’t shaping up to be much better. Then May happened. It started with a rained-out camping trip the first weekend. Haha, we said, what were the odds? And then it rained for darn near the whole month. Austin had over 12 inches of rain in May.
With all the moisture comes the fungus.
The nice thing has been the really mild temperatures we had throughout the month. I write this on a 90 degree afternoon, which is more typical, so expect the whining about the heat to resume soon. I have managed to sneak in some gardening, between the raindrops. We haven’t had to water much of anything, so that’s been nice.
I wound up spending a certain amount of Mother’s Day weekend installing plant life. The kids also made gifts for me, and we ordered a sushi picnic dinner.
The new palm tree
Now that a certain corner of our yard had turned very sunny with all the limbs we lost during the freeze, and since we also lost the palm tree we had growing in the back yard during said freeze, we decided to convert the sunny corner into a tropical-ish bed. We thought we’d go to a nursery in town that had palm trees for sale. Turns out their “for sale” roughly matched our “holy crap, that’s expensive,” and that’s the story of how I ordered a 7-gallon palm tree from a grower on Etsy.
The upside of a 7-gallon palm tree is that it’s a decent enough size that maybe the animals and kids won’t accidentally destroy it. The downside of a 7-gallon palm tree is that now I’d need to dig a 7-gallon hole in our very rocky soil. I spent a couple days digging, and the kids wanted to help too, believe it or not. With all the rocks and roots to work through, our method was to dig the softer stuff and smaller rocks up with a cultivator. Once we hit bigger rocks, we used the pickaxe to break them up and pry them out. Sounds weird, but I would bet you that anyone in central Texas that regularly gardens has a pickaxe in their arsenal.
Cotton candy at Dolphinfest
Mid-month, the kids participated in a socially distanced Dolphinfest. The kids – all of them, not just ours – have had to give up so much this year, we decided to give it a try, explaining to the kids we would bail out if it felt unsafe. Several families offered up their yards to host games, and the kids biked, scootered, or walked from house to house, participating as they went. Maya and Ian seemed to really love it. Several kids said hello to Maya, having recognized her from previous years or from Zoom classes. Impressive, seeing that she was masked.
Bird-watching trip with Lolli and Pop
On the 20th of May, Sean’s parents, Lolli and Pop to the grandkids, arrived at our house. We hadn’t seen them since Christmas of 2019. The kids were thrilled. From the moment they let us know they were on the road from Alabama, Ian in particular was on us *constantly* to find out how close they were. They played games together, went swimming in the very cold hotel pool (Lolli was the only grownup brave enough to get in), relaxed together. The kids showed them their cascarones from Dolphinfest. One afternoon, we took a little bird walk at Mills Pond and saw turtles, rabbits, a blue jay, and even the famed wood duck. Lolli crocheted the kids little stuffed animals – Ian received a unicorn and Maya received a dragon. All in all, it was a really good visit. Maya and Ian, of course, didn’t want them to leave.
Ian and Ms Carver
Ian’s kindergarten teacher chose to retire after this crazy year, and so we wound up going up to school to help her celebrate. This is the only time Ian has ever seen his kindergarten teacher in person, and since she’s retired, he won’t see her roaming the halls next year. With mask on, Ian ran and played tag with a group of kids his own age. It was yet another little punch to the gut, thinking of all the things he has missed this year.
Sean and I kind of took it easy for our anniversary. We ordered a meat, cheese, and goodies tray from Antonelli’s Cheese Shop and a bread and cracker plate to go along with it. The meal was top notch, the cheeses interesting, the accompanying fruit, olives, mostarda, and peppers delightful. With the bread and cracker tray, it was easily enough to feed the four of us that night with leftovers for Sean and I to enjoy the next morning for breakfast.
The best car-washing help!
We really did very little over Memorial Day weekend. We had a vaccinated friend over for dinner (hooray, we can do things like that now). Sean and the kids cleaned up the Prius because we were trying to get it traded in for a larger car. One day we all donned our masks and went over to the outdoor mall to get ice cream cones from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream. With our cones already dripping, we hustled to an unpopulated outdoor spot to sit down, remove our masks, and eat ice creams like semi normal people. The kids were an unholy mess by the time their cones were eaten, but it was a nice outing. Also, sweet cream biscuit and peach jam ice cream is incredible.
On the Wednesday immediately preceding the kids’ last day of school, I took Maya up to campus very early in the morning for a face to face meeting with her teacher. It’s the only time so far that Maya had been around her in person. It was very kind for her to make time for us to come see her, and Maya for her part was thrilled.
Maya and Ms Markos
And then on Thursday, just like that, school was over. We now have a third-grader and a first-grader living at our house. And then over the weekend, we traded in the Prius for an Outback. We bought the Prius while I was pregnant with Maya, so it’s been our car her whole life, and Ian’s too. At first, we weren’t allowed to buy a new car (Maya). Then, once we got our hula lady from our trip three years ago to Hawaii off the Prius’s dash, we could move on. The kids were weirdly thrilled with the new car. The dealership, the car, the smell, the soft ceiling <shrug>, they loved it all. Each time I change cars, it feels like a new era. The Prius has seen two new kids, several vacations, and a pandemic. It has worn amniotic fluid, vomit, and blood … and probably more boogers that I want to think about. Who knows what the Outback era will bring.
I keep posting these statistics to remind myself that while things are definitely improving, coronavirus is not over yet, not that I really could forget, since it still factors into so many of our decisions. Percentage of US population that has been fully vaccinated (34.2% as of 5/08, 41.9% as of 6/06). Travis County – 05/09 82,901 cases and 858 deaths – 06/04 83,910 cases and 873 deaths. Texas – 05/08 2,914,504 cases and 50,643 deaths – 06/06 2,962,934 cases and 51,719 deaths. United States – 05/08 32,707,359 cases and 581,752 deaths – 06/06 33,326,471 cases and 597,627 deaths. The World – 05/08 157,946,278 cases and 3,288,638 deaths – 06/06 173,197,944 cases and 3,726,107 deaths.
