Leslie learns to Video Chat

Let me be clear - I am not a techie. I only do this stuff when necessary. We purchased our first personal computer (PC) back around 1994 - when our children were little. I'd worked on one at my job at Cornerstone Financial, Mike Moffit's business in Creston. I was fascinated with the PC Mike had at the office. Paul and I soon signed on the dotted line at Best Buy for a very expensive zero-interest loan for our very own PC. Amy and Jud have fond memories of that first computer - Oregon Trail and other games.

I've been the family tech person ever since that first computer. Gulp! Too bad techie stuff doesn't come a little easier to me. I'd give myself a D on tech knowledge with an A for effort! I keep grinding away until I get it. Then it's one of those head knocks like, "duh, it was right there all the time!"

I'm not an early adopter. Change is hard, ya know. Once I learn something, I prefer to just do it that way until forced to change - stuff like upgrades, or insistent children. Covid 19 is causing changes in all of our lives. I'm looking for some of the good changes.

I know many friends who have grandchildren who have been using video chat for years - mostly FaceTime. Getting to see the little ones grow and change is so great for them. Much better than the slightly out of focus photos I'd send to my parents who wintered in Florida, and to Paul's folks at their Earlville home.

Isolated in our homes, my friends, family, Paul and I began to look for ways to feel more connected. We miss our peeps! I've discovered there are many different chat and meeting type Softwares to use, and I've begun bumbling my way through them - with a little help from others! Here are a few.

I have a Zoom business meeting tomorrow with another party - they set it up. I am in the process of setting up a part-time consulting business (yes, I can't get away from trash). I need to do a remote meeting for my business, so I decided to look into Zoom - the limited version is free. When I told a couple girlfriends, they said - check out how to use it with us! So we did!

I'm still figuring it out - how to manage the screen - and who sees what on the screen. For the other participants - I think they only saw who was talking. Last night, six of us "Zoomed" for Robyn's birthday (she's now 62 like all of us except youngster Sal) - all wearing the jammie tops she bought us for our Florida trip. We sang, laughed and watched Sally cook dinner. We got to see Sal and Pam's dogs. Paula thoughtfully presented a pretend cake. She and I are really missing having dogs right now. Her pup Sammie passed a year before Odie. Julia's beautiful daughter stopped by to wave "hi". Chris couldn't attend as her baby boy was flying into Phoenix. The birthday girl was in her glory!

Last weekend, we talked to our kids (Saturday - Amy/Corey, Sunday Kara/Jud) via Google Hangouts. They each set it up, and sent me an invite via email - all I had to do was click on it.  I looked at that program yesterday - it says you don't have to have Gmail but I had put a couple non-Gmail addresses in an invite and they disappeared....so I need more info on that. It may be the addresses they supplied have a block?

Kara had tried to Facetime us on Sunday but it turned out I didn't have Facetime enabled on my phone. Oops. That is now fixed - so next time! We don't have any other Apple products besides my iPhone, so - no iPad to see bigger pics, so this would probably be lower on my list of things to use. We got to see the Goldsmith doggos too and could hear Franklin shaking his ears out. Next time we're going to do a group call with all six of us - maybe we can get Cindo in there too!

I have an older HP laptop - and must admit I've had a piece of masking tape over the camera lens for years after the "your computer is spying on you" stories. I've peeled that tape off now (during calls #paranoid)! The HP camera is not the sharpest - which is kind of nice, like older actors and actresses having that filter to smooth out wrinkles. Last night, I had all six participants' little pictures stretched out on my screen like the Brady Bunch. Just thinking about it now makes me smile. I need to set up some more groups! College pals, sisters, Cyclone tailgating people, Creston homies, Paul's family - the list goes on!

If you are not already using video chat systems - try it! Just don't ask me how - haha.