All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

This is a poem by Richard Brautigan:

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

I'd like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.

I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.

I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.

I was thinking about this poem today while I traipsed around Parque Carolina with Maya and Jonah. Not because it has any particular relevance to what we did today, but because I felt lucky. Plus, I like the phrase "all watched over by machines of loving grace".

Basically, Maya and Jonah were unbearable this weekend. Whining, crying, barfing, fighting, pushing, scene-making, and on and on. It was not much fun to be around them. I was dreading how they were going to be today when Rebecca was going to be at work from 8 until 5 (now I know how she feels on an Alexandria Monday when I head off to work).

But, miraculously, they were great. Aside from an early morning "carry me" monologue from Jonah that must have been left over from yesterday, they were great. After we went to the grocery store, we came back to the apartment and they put on their swimsuits and pretended to go swimming in the living room. Then, after we ate lunch at 10:30 a.m., we went out for the day.

The plan was to go to the post office and then to the spider museum in Parque Carolina. We got to the post office about 11:30 (Mrs. Bradley, Mrs Potts, and Celeste, expect mail!) and finally got to the spider museum at 4 p.m. In between, we made mud pies, pretended we were motorcycles and walked/ran the BMX/motorcross track in the park, practiced screaming "Ayudame!" as we rolled down a grassy hill, broke a coke bottle at a corner store, and of course, ate ice cream.

The park has all kinds of vendors riding around on bikes or walking around pulling their wares on a cart. Our favorite vendor is el hombre de helado (the ice cream man). The kids can spot him from across the park. He rides a bike with a cooler welded to the front. During our few days in the park, we've encountered the same ice cream man a few times. I think he is ripping me off since his sign says it's 50 centavos for this particular ice cream on a stick that the kids like, but he charges me 65 centavos. But what the hell, it's ice cream. It's worth every centavo.

Today, the kids ordered the Ron Paya flavor. I now know that Ron Paya means rum raisin. I think the kids ordered it because of its bright yellow color in the picture on the front of the cooler. Well, that's why Maya ordered it. Jonah just orders what she orders. After the first lick I could tell neither one liked it. Maya wanted something else, but Jonah was going to soldier on and eat his. As a responsible parent, I did not think it wise to let him finish an entire pop of rum raisin. So I ate both his and hers and gave them the strawberry/vanilla sundae thing that I ordered. They were happy with that arrangement.

This occurred very early in the day. I was afraid that I would not be able to bribe them with the prospect of ice cream or other sweets later in the day when they started breaking down and needed some encouragement to behave. But, for whatever reason (and we all know the reason, but Rebecca will feel terrible if I come right out and say it was because she wasn't around) the kids behaved beautifully. We had a great day.

As it was approaching 4 p.m.,we hadn't made it to the spider museum yet, and I was debating heading home. I mentioned this to Maya and she said that she thought I had forgotten about going to the spider museum because I hadn't mentioned it in while and she still wanted to go. So we did.

Our guidebook says there is a "chilling display of large spiders" in the museum (I assume it means of the dead and behind glass variety) but we only saw one. The kids liked seeing it, but probably not the best. I think the best thing they liked was the stuffed bear that greets you as you enter the place. Or the few alligators scattered around the place. Jonah has this thing recently where whenever we cross the run-off along the curbs or a large puddle, he will say that there are alligators in there. But if you see any to tell him and he'll scare them off by shouting, "Boo!".

The other things the guidebook mentions as being of interest at the museum are a 7 meter anaconda skeleton and a skeleton of a giant prehistoric sloth. Those things were both there. And you could walk right up to them and touch them if you didn't read Spanish (Por Favor, No Tocar signs were abundant). Fortunately, Maya and Jonah didn't want to touch them. Because I did have visions of those things crashing to the ground and me and my idiotic Spanish trying to explain it. We were the only people in the place, there would have been no choice but to own up.

Already on my watch, Jonah broke a glass juice pitcher in the Mega Maxi on Sunday when he rolled a ball a few aisles from the toy section to the glassware section. Stupid to display glass pitchers on the bottom shelf. When it shattered, Jonah got his first lesson in walking stealthily away.

And today, we ordered a small coke with our empanada snack. There are sodas for sale in plastic bottles, but since there is no recycling here, I asked for the glass returnable one. Maya, Jonah and I each took a sip, and I put it on the counter. When Maya spun to take a bite of empanada, her elbow knocked into the bottle and it shattered on the floor. So, that bottle ended up in the landfill anyway.