Isn't it amazing what technology can do today?  Now, I know you remember that I was having a hissy fit about my new cell phone and how I didn't really know how to use it.  Actually, I still haven't learned what all it can do, but at least now I can make calls, send text messages and take some sharp looking pictures.  Now if I could just get them off the phone…

But what I'm really talking about is a free downloadable program for the computer.  And if you haven't been Skpyed yet, you don't know what you're missing.  Plug in a microphone, add a webcam and run Skpye for a free video phone to anywhere in the internet world.  Simply amazing!  And it works!  Most of the time. 

At first, my Skyping was mostly to my son in Guatemala where I have been able to meet and get to know his new wife.  With it the world has shrunk and often times I feel like I am sitting in their living room as they sit with me.  Instant visitors without the dreaded fear of killer dust bunnies attacking.  Their dog will periodically take up the whole screen with one big eyeball on the camera lens.  And we laugh. At other times, they have taken their laptop for a walk about the house and onto their balcony for me to get a glimpse of where they call home.  With a stretch of the imagination, I can say I have travelled all the way to their corner of the world. 

Soon, what had its place in distant lands came closer to home.  Just a couple of hours down the road live my twin grandsons.  Although I do get to see them fairly often, it is never enough and a "surprise visit" is always welcomed.  With Skype all of us can get in on the act.  The boys run in and out of view and their laughter fills the air.  Mine too as I watch them take turns putting on one of their dad's shoes and dragging it across the floor.  Or dance to their favourite music on Saturday morning cartoons.  Or as dad scurries to catch one then the other while they race around the couch with juice boxes in hand.  It's almost like they are here in my living room; except I get to enjoy them and their parents get to clean up.  And best of all, they throw and I catch their kisses and they mine.  I wouldn't miss it for the world.  And I don't have to.   Isn't technology simply amazing?

For a while it was just me that was Skyping at our house.  Now my hubby and I are sharing the one camera and microphone back and forth between our laptops.  (I'm thinking a Christmas gift might be in order here.)  It was easy for me to feel a bit smug with my experience as I led him to discover Skype but that didn't last long.  I had been telling him how it worked and how easy it was but that only two could do video at a time; more family online was possible but it was only audio.  Not so any more.  He's got the new updated version and it handles 4 or 5 people in video.  Imagine that!  And here I thought I was Mrs. Cool keeping up with all the latest technology.  Wrong!  I sure hope this isn't shades of cell phone technology again!

And now I have friends who are opting to Skype me.  Although they have the long distance phone packages, they would prefer the face to face experience.  That's okay. However, I do have to draw the line.  In some ways I am a morning person and in other ways I am not.  I do like to sit at my computer, catch up on my email, sip on my coffee and greet the day slowly.  To have someone call in for a surprise video session then, why, heck no!   It's one thing for my family to see what I look like after just falling out of bed; they've experienced that a lot over the years.  However, it's not a vision I wish to extend beyond them.  Thankfully,  Skype offers choice so I can face whom I wish to face when I wish to do so.  So far so good.

I can't help but think of my mom and dad and how they would have loved this.   Unfortunately, when they came to Canada in 1948, there was no such thing.  It was a very different world back then.  Both my mom and dad were only children and when they left England, they left behind parents who had no other family.  How sad!  Then it would take weeks for a letter to cross the Atlantic and anything else was too costly.  How their parents must have missed them and their family!

So today I sing the praises of technological progress.  Imagine that! 

Note to Self…  More and more our families spread out yet more and more technology brings them back.  Don't miss out on your family when something as simply amazing as Skpye can bring them home.