I know I’m late to the party. Sara’s been telling me about Zoom for two years and now it’s a technology tool surging in use because of the “Stay At Home” orders prompted by the coronavirus. A combination of Facetime and Web-Ex, Zoom is a user-friendly, group-video- chat technology tool that’s web-based with an app that works on smartphones.
At the beginning of the week, my boss suggested we put a plan in place for a daily video chat among our team of six people across several cities. I took the lead and figured out how to do a group FaceTIme, using the messaging app on our iPhones. Once you have a group chat set up, it’s simple to initiate a group FaceTime.
I thought it would be a good idea to also try a daily, group FaceTime with my kids and siblings, but it did not work out because everyone in the group FaceTime needs to have the most up-to-date iPhones. My daughter Annie and sister Ginny do not have the latest iPhones so the first efforts at group FaceTiming with them on Monday didn’t work. They broke down into a frustrating comedy of trying to get technology to work while using technology that wasn’t working.
Enter Zoom. I work from noon to midnight, Sunday through Thursday. Thursday night at dinner, I talked with Sara, Will and John about signing up for Zoom. I wanted to use my coming “weekend” (if there is such a thing?), figuring out how to bring Annie and Ginny into group video chats with Zoom. At dinner, Sara told me that I’d love one feature of Zoom: the meeting organizer can press a button and mute everyone else! I raised my arms above my head and screamed, “Sign me up!” Sara told me that she needed to unplug from technology for the night but promised to teach me how to use Zoom today, Friday.
While Sara watched TV Thursday night, I set myself up in our guest bedroom which has become my night-time office for my evening work which, again, goes until midnight.
It was a difficult and frustrating night at work, but between emails and phone calls, I signed up for Zoom and started playing around with it. They have free accounts--and it’s really easy to use.
When my shift was over at midnight, I wrote a passdown email to my small group at work as I do every overnight. I closed it by mentioning that I’d gotten a Zoom account and maybe we could try using it instead of the group FaceTime via iPhone messages. My boss (who was still awake) emailed me back to report that she too had just learned about Zoom. She’d set it up for her mother because the extended family was going to use it for a family Bar Mitzvah today, Friday.
I had a bad night’s sleep with unusually vivid dreams about being bullied in high school. I don’t remember much of it, but woke up early, agitated and wide awake at 5:42am--still dressed after basically passing out after sending out my passdown email.
Our dog Happy had slept with me and I took her downstairs, made myself a cup of coffee and scanned photos for an hour and a half to calm myself down. At 7:45am, Sara came downstairs with our other dog, Stella. I have a mild hearing loss and wear hearing aids. When I got out of bed, I had not put them in. Without my hearing aids, I miss snippets of conversation. I also--so I am told--talk very loud. Pent up from my work night and bad dream, I started to talk with Sara. Sadly, it was more like a verbal assault--and she literally put her hand up and told me to stop. I was too loud and too much. I calmed down, poured myself another coffee and after a few minutes, we were able to have a quiet conversation.
Soon, Sara set herself up for her work-day from the kitchen table. I moved into my favorite chair in the living room, 20 feet and around the corner from Sara. Still without my hearing aids, I pulled out devices and discovered that Zoom has an app so you can use it on your iPhone. I downloaded it onto my phone, synched it up with my contacts and sent individual messages to people, asking them to download the app for future meetings. I sent one of those texts to Sara. From the kitchen, she texted back, “Mansplaining. OMG. I’ve had the app for two years.” I responded, “Want me to show you how it works?” She answered, “Yes. Because I don’t want to bother my pretty little head.”
Chastised, I began working to see if I could set up a Zoom meeting with my sister Ginny. As much as I love gadgets, Ginny eschews them. For her, less is more, but she does have an iPhone.
Steve, Susan, Richard and Ginny Thode connecting on Zoom
What did NOT happen?
A. Before she started her work, Sara came into the living room and sat down in the rocking chair next to my favorite chair. She gave me a 5-minute lesson on Zoom including showing me how to use the group mute button and how to record any meeting for others who miss it. She then went into the kitchen and started her own workday;
B. Banished from the kitchen, I used my iPhone to call Ginny on her landline. I explained my plan to set her up with Zoom. Good news. She’d heard of it and had actually used it Thursday night for a group rosary prayer in her diocese;
C. Bad news. Ginny told me when she’d used Zoom with her home computer, she wasn’t able to video chat. The web cam she had on her computer didn’t work--and hadn’t worked since she’d bought it years ago. I told her to download the app;
D. I sent Ginny a text message, she joined the meeting and we were doing a video chat on Zoom! I was so excited that I sent an email to Sara, inviting her to join my meeting with Ginny. When Sara got the invitation, she shouted from the kitchen, “I can’t. I’m working. I’m actually working!!!!”
E. Will was also awake and working from home in the basement. He too had heard every word. He texted Sara and me, “lmao. That was my favorite exchange of the quarantine.”
Want the answer?
If you’re a subscriber, the answer will be sent to you as a separate email when the question is published.
Want more?
Here’s the next quiz in the series: Quiz #8. “Crazy.”
Here’s the previous quiz in the series: Quiz #6. “How You Doin?”
Here’s the first quiz in the series: Quiz #1. Stella and Social Distancing, March 13, 2020
The quiz is explained here: Steve’s Stay-at-Home Coronavirus Quiz.
Here is an archive of all the quizzes.
Want to let me know how I’m doing with this quiz?
Please let me know about any typos or misspellings.
Comments, corrections and confessions welcome.
Thank you and good night.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for commenting.