Z is for Zooming

Who remembers when there was one phone in the house and it was attached to the wall? Does the word “Party line” mean anything to you?? If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, roll your walker on over and come sit near me. Whoooaa…back it up there. You’re closer than 6 feet. 

Todays technology can be mind-boggling. Or maybe the older I get, it just seems that way. I stopped trying to keep up when J2 was having to explain the TV remote to me.

Skype, one of the first affordable video-conferencing services, was introduced in 2003. The initial release of FaceTime was in 2010. I used Skype a handful of times and only started using FaceTime last year. And that was by accident.

Zoom was founded in 2011; launched its software in 2013; and first became profitable in 2019. “Zoom’s software increased due to the quarantine measures adopted in response to the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic.”

Had it not been for this pandemic, I probably would have stayed away from FaceTime and Zoom. It’s bad enough seeing myself in the mirror let alone on a phone/screen with bad lighting and through a fisheye lens.

But…Zooming we are. Even Riley World is zooming. He wasn’t exactly happy about it the first time...

but now gets quite excited to see and chat with his group. They have even been working on some social interaction skills like making telephone calls. 

My first Zoom experience was with my book club. We have another meeting tonight and even have a guest author joining us. 

We’ve even had a couple of social zoom parties playing games. 

It seems being out of touch with people has affected me more than I thought because I get quite excited when we are zooming. I may have even been put on “mute” a couple of times by the host. That’s ok. I got my own zoom account now.

Y is for Yardwork

Prologue:

I realize it’s not #TBT (Throwback Thursday) or #FBF (Flashback Friday) but I found this old post and it is perfect for my “Y” subject.

I originally wrote this back in March of 2014. Can you believe that was 6 years ago! I figure most of you reading now never followed me before sooooo...it's like new material, right??  

Some times, it is good for me to look back and see how far Riley has come. 

Some times, I can’t believe we are STILL working on the exact. same. things…Operation IFO comes to mind. We started that back in September of 2013. *sobs softly to myself*

You’ll also get a glimpse of our old backyard. No wonder I never spent much time out there. I’ll post pics of our new and improved backyard at the end.


Before:

Now I am sure you have heard the old saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”?  Well my friend Lori had one of those branch clippers on a stick that she bought on a whim and used only a couple of times. She gave it to G when she was moving. During the last snow G was in heaven. The branches on the trees around our yard were weighed down with snow so he was able to clip away to his heart’s content without the use of a ladder.  

It was a sunny day today so G decided to go out and clean up the tree carnage. “I” decided R should help him. Not sure who was least impressed…G or R?!?  So at 10:45 I shoved R out the door  R headed outside. 

G started R off with a corn broom then switched him over to a push broom. Did you know a corn broom does not push well?? Conversely a push broom does not sweep well. Just an observation.

Betcha didn’t know that the operation of a push broom required a demonstration. Welcome to Riley World! 

Now even though I was still in my PJ’s, I decided audio was required so you could enjoy the full experience. My pleasure. Two more observations before this last clip:

• Did you know the words raking and sweeping are interchangeable???
• When sweeping does not work…kicking will do.

Riley held the bag helped G bag the branches and was outside for 1 hour!!!


After:

This only happened because the District needed to replace a bridge below our house. Even though it took 18 months, we are thrilled with how it turned out. I actually spend time out there now.

Tomorrow is the last day of this challenge. I promise it will be an original.