Skyping: It's not just for young people anymore...

Our youngest has moved to New Orleans, which means I have learned how to use Skype.  It's not enough, however, that I use it.  The youngest wants to talk to her dog, and her grandparents as well.

The dog is easy.  She whistles and I put the camera near his face so she can see the big "ole" boy.  She talks to him, and he perks up his ears, then runs around a bit looking for her.  It's, of course, funny and a bit sad at the same time.  Every time we talk and Santana is around, this is what happens.

The grandparents are a different story altogether.  Let's talk about Grammie (my Mom) first.  She's the one with dementia or Alzheimer's Disease, or whatever the term of the week is.

The youngest says, "Put Grammie on."  I tell Mom to come over by me and hand her the camera that's usually perched on my laptop (it's about 3 inches long, 1 inch wide).

I say, "Mom, talk into the camera, then look at the laptop screen when Casey's talking to you."  Mom takes the camera into her hand, looks into it, then at the screen, and adjusts the camera till her picture is pretty decent.  "Hi, Case, how's everything?"  The conversation progresses very nicely.  Mom figures it out very fast, and then she's done and hands me the camera.  She is the grandparent with dementia.  Yes, I felt the need to repeat that.

Of course, you know what's coming next.  Casey wants to know where Poppie is.  "Get Poppie over here now."

"Dad, come and talk to Casey."

Now, here's a little aside about Dad.  He worked for the telephone company for over thirty years.  We always respected his technical abilities, and trusted him to fix things like outlets, switches, install phone lines.
However, at this point in time, he is a Luddite.  He has a really old cell phone that he doesn't always turn on. He sometimes doesn't know why we haven't returned his calls.  We have tried to, but he will call us, then turn his phone off.  I'm sure you know people like that (typically, they are older...well, older than me!).

"Dad, I said, come and talk to Casey!"  Dad says, "I'm COMING, JUST wait a minute."

He strolls over to me, I hand him the camera and give him the same shpeel I gave Mom.  "Dad, talk into the camera, then look at the laptop screen when Casey's talking to you."  Casey is already laughing...

Dad holds the camera so it faces the floor.  He looks at the screen, and starts yelling at it.  "HI CASEY, HOW'S EVERYTHING DOWN THERE.  IS IT HOT?"

Casey:  "Put the camera up, Poppie and look into it so I can see you."

"WHAT?  DO WHAT?"

Casey: "Ma, show him again."

So, I do, and explain that he can see his own picture on the screen next to Casey.  He listens intently, I hold the camera for him.  He says to her, "IS THIS BETTER? CAN YOU SEE ME BETTER NOW?  CAN YOU HEAR ME?"  He is yelling as if his voice needed to be manually sent 1500 miles.  I give him the camera to hold.

Casey: "Poppie, don't yell.  I can hear you.  I'm o.k."

The camera again droops and he forgets it's even there.  Again, yelling directly at my poor laptop screen, "YOU BE CAREFUL DOWN THERE.  THERE'S A LOT OF CRAZY PEOPLE AROUND."

Needless to say, neither Casey or I could keep it together after that, and we finished our conversation.