One of the first things we did in July was to adopt a new cat! This whole notion started a few months ago. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had an affectionate cat again? We really loved having a siamese / mutt cat; I wonder if we could find one of those again? Wouldn’t it be funny if we had a Lumos to go with our Nox?

Lumos, hiding in my desk drawer.

I had gotten into the habit of occasionally finding cats that were up for adoption and texting photos to Sean with the simple caption, “Lumos?” All of this was safely just a funny notion until he showed one of these photos to the kids, and then as if by magic it became, “We are adopting a new cat!”

Still, we took our time finding just the right one. I scoured the Austin Pets Alive site looking for a cat with the personality we were after. It took probably a solid two months between “We are adopting a new cat!” and “Hey, we found one we might like that hasn’t already been adopted!” She was known to her foster person as Blanca. She had just had kittens, who had just been weaned whenever we came to meet the cats. The kittens were adorable, of course, but after spending a few minutes with Blanca and having her roll around and purr and present herself as an absolute sweetheart, albeit a very nervous one, we were sold. She was definitely the cat for us.

Once at our house, Blanca became Lumos. She spent a couple weeks sequestered from the other cats back in our bedroom and bathroom, getting used to us and recovering from her spay surgery. The kids would make a visit or two each day to get in some pets and see the new feline resident. We’ve let her have the run of the house for the past couple weeks, but she still feels safest back in our room. One of her favorite places to snooze is in one of my desk drawers. She, and Hank before her, learned that you could climb into the drawer from the back side and enjoy a very peaceful siesta.

Maybe starting to be friends?

Lumos wants to be friends with the other two cats in our house. Hank is mellow, but I think she came on a little strong, even for him. Especially at first, she would follow him around the house a lot. Now they more or less seem to put up with each other, and I have a notion that given a little more time, they will learn to play together peacefully.

Nox, though. She was always going to be a tough sell, and wow has that proven true. Early on, while Lumos was at the vet, I tried to take Nox back to the bathroom where Lumos had been largely staying, so that Nox could get used to the smell of her. I had barely crossed the threshold into the room before she had turned into a panicky ball of hissing, growling fury. I still don’t know how I managed to not lose any skin. Since then, Nox has calmed down to the extent that she will only turn on her low-rumble growl and occasional hissing if Lumos comes too close. And Lumos really wants to come make friends with the pissed off black kitty.

Maya’s favorite firework, which she’s please to have not used.

We didn’t do too much for our second annual crappy-tacular stay-at-home Fourth of July. Our summer babysitter’s family owns a restaurant and food truck in town serving Venezuelan and Mexican food. It’s called Aleida’s, and for lunch on the fourth, we stopped by and tried it out. The kids liked the sodas, and Sean and I very much enjoyed trying some dishes that we hadn’t before (check out the cachapas).

Maya is off-screen, pinching her nose and complaining about the smell of fire.

Sean tried, at the very last minute, to find a few small and hopefully innocuous fireworks with which to entertain the kids later. He found a little purple dragon for Maya that had fireworks in its mouth and its pooper, which promised to be hilarious at ignition time. Once it got darker, we played with some sparklers and threw the rest of our poppers and lit some relatively quiet fireworks that we had from the previous year.  Then we tried one of the new ones – an ice cream cone. The guy who sold it to Sean, upon being questioned about the noise level, assured Sean that it only crackled a little. We didn’t want to spook the neighborhood dogs or annoy the neighborhood neighbors, so we were trying to make good choices. We lit the ice cream cone and were treated to a glorious volcano of lovely sparkles. It was so pretty! And then suddenly it sounded like heavy artillery in our front lawn. It was so boisterous, we actually started making for the house to take cover. That was kind of the end of our fireworks for the evening. The next day, I asked Maya if she felt sad that we didn’t get to light up her dragon. She told us she was kind of relieved that we wouldn’t be destroying him.

Going on a hike! In July! In Texas!

We had been taking morning walks together throughout summer vacation, just to get our housebound kids (and grownups) a little more exercise. We decided to go to Palmetto State Park for a longer hike one weekend. It got us away from the house for a little while, and we were able to assemble a pretty flat 3-mile hike, that even in July was manageable. Maya, ever the wildlife spotter, took joy in finding all manner of bugs and snails and toads and lizards along her hike. We saw the most amazing giant walking stick bugs all along the trail. A couple of hapless armadillos bumble-hustled through at one point. And Maya found a little green lizard (green anole?) toward the end of the trail. I had visions of stopping in Lockhart for barbecue on the way back, but we were all so terribly hot by then that it just didn’t sound enjoyable. Next time, for sure.

Art camp owls.

The week of July 12th, the kids did art camp at their elementary school. They joined a class of about 20 kids, all of them in masks, and spent mornings for a whole week making various kinds of art. Maya created more artwork than she could carry. Ian made multiple new friends, taught several kids how to make origami stars, and secured a playdate with one of his classmates.

Gray fox loved the peanuts we put out for the squirrels.

I nearly forgot! Art camp week was also a good week for the critters around our house. Maya managed to catch a toad in our yard, with her bug net of all things! I actually left a work call a little prematurely to rescue the poor toad and make sure it got safely away. One evening, as the kids were getting ready for bed, we saw a little gray fox in the back yard. We had seen one only a single time last summer as well, so it was exciting to have another sighting. It seemed to be enjoying the peanuts we chuck out there for the birds and squirrels.

Sean coaching Maya.

Back in May, I had booked us a 2-hour swim block on a Wednesday afternoon toward the end of July at Jacob’s Well. It is a 137-foot hole that leads to an underground cavern system. The site is beautiful, the water cool and clear. The thing to do here is climb up on the rocks to various heights and jump into the big hole. Sean did this immediately, with zero hesitation, though it was clear from the look on his face when he surfaced that the plunge into the 68-degree spring-water just about took his breath away. Maya wanted to jump, but she had some trouble climbing up. Once she was up, she clearly had to talk herself into taking that first leap. After she jumped in and paddled herself over to where her feet would touch, she had barely stopped before she was shouting, “Again!”

Ian is cold and would like to get out.

Ian wants very badly to do all the things his sister does, but he is a more cautious fellow. He had me take him over so Dad could jump in with him, but in the end he decided against it. He was upset with himself and explained to me that he wanted to jump but he wasn’t sure he was ready yet. Also, the water was very cold to Ian zero-percent-body-fat Woods.

On a less happy note … how did we get here? At the beginning of the month, Sean and I were happily making vacation plans and getting the kids kitted for back to school time. In the middle of the month, we were pleased at how well the kids did with their masks and friends and art camp. Now at the end of the month, we’re AGAIN evaluating whether to go with virtual learning. The current COVID caseload in Austin is insane AGAIN. The ICUs are full AGAIN. I suspect I’m not alone here – I have spent this past week on a downward spiral of emotion.

Anyway, here are our monthly coronavirus statistics. Percentage of US population that has been fully vaccinated (47.0% as of 6/30, 49.5% as of 7/31). Travis County – 06/30 84,728 cases and 881 deaths – 07/30 89,433 cases and 900 deaths. Texas – 06/30 3,000,069 cases and 52,337 deaths – 08/01 3,142,184 cases and 53,296 deaths. United States – 06/30 33,666,198 cases and 604,718 deaths – 08/01 35,002,148 cases and 613,224 deaths. The World – 06/30 182,303,080 cases and 3,948,970 deaths – 08/01 198,283,776 cases and 4,224,015 deaths.