I almost fell off my chair laughing yesterday... To have an out-of-control belly laugh felt so great, especially in this time of Covid 19 and escalating tensions in our world.

What happened? We arranged a zoom call with three boomers and three seniors, longtime family friends and our respective parents, now in their mid - 80s and mid- 90s.

If any of you have been on a "Zoom" call lately, you will relate to how funny some of the calls can get, especially with family members. This scenario unfolded like a classic Monty Python skit. We all managed to sign in and view each other on the four panel screen , however the 95 year-olds had somehow muted themselves. So the comedy began.

We tried holding up paper signs to let them know that they were muted, but if you've been on a zoom call, you know that signage and printing shows up backwards. So in true Monty Python fashion, they pressed their noses right up close to the computer screen and peered in to see what we had written on the signs.

The 86 year old decided to phone the 95 year olds, and give them some coaching help...... When she got them on the phone, she excitedly proclaimed that she could hear them, therefore they must be 'unmuted' on the screen ....however that wasn't the case ....she was hearing them via her hearing aids while on the phone with them!

Then the friend tried to phone her parents to help with the technology glitch, but they had left the phone off the hook. So we held up another sign asking them to put their phone back on the hook. Shortly thereafter, their daughter managed to reach them by phone. She was trying to explain to them they had to move the mouse down on the screen in order to'click' the audio function, which got interpreted by them as as "move your mouth away from the phone", which of course totally confounded them as to what to do with the phone in their hands...

The couple finally managed to un-mute themselves and we began a convoluted and hilarious interaction with two or three conversations going at cross purposes. Within 30 seconds of getting them "un-muted" on the zoom screen, their phone rang and of course the phone rings at full volume, drowning out any possibility of hearing anything. The daughter suggested to the parents that they answer the phone and tell whoever was on the other end to please call back later. That didn't happen because one of them jumped up to answer the phone call and disappeared. She returned and not 5 seconds later their phone rang again, and we went through the same goofiness!

Maybe you had to be there, but we were all in hysterics with the attempt at technology and communication... boomers trying to zoom with our parents!

We hope this newsletter finds you happy and healthy, and that you may also enjoy some great chuckles this week! Really, the technology is wonderful, our parents are doing so well with their learning curves - and they keep us laughing! Please feel free to contact us if you have any 'art requests'.... We have the gallery open as usual, by appointment.

Cheers,

Marion and Bobb