Skyping with Family

Michele and Nathalie (from Brussels) did all the genealogy research and found my cousin Claude in Versailles, France. He, in turn, sent them my information way out here in Los Angeles, Ca. USA.

During their visit here we planned to Skype to cousin Claude in France. They are both only daughters, Claude is an only child, and we are an isolated branch of the family in LA. Thus the motivation to meet and bond and compare notes.

We planned the Skype hour to "reach out and touch" each other across the globe.

But before I get too enthused about the whole Skype deal, I remember that every time I try to Skype with visual, something goes wrong. The picture is fuzzy, the delays monumental and the dropped calls frequent to the point we give up and switch to ATT voice.

Those calls always remind me of the scene in the movie "Mother" by Al Brooks. They are using the first generation of a "picture phone." She can't seem to "stay in the picture" and the other end keeps telling her to go right and left, which of course is reversed. Hysterical scene that could only have been plucked from the wild imagination of Al Brooks. And now reality catches up with fantasy!

Claude is on my MAC screen, but I can't hear him. He can hear me, but can't see me. We go back and forth for some moments then just hang up. Claude calls me with France Telecom and bingo! no problem. We hear him loud and clear.

But it's a bad day for Claude. As his hips are degenerating he is in pain. His Dr. has let him know that his particular form of hip problem is normally only seen in the descendants of the Vikings! So he is no longer Jewish, but a Viking.

And I thought only LA was filled with re-inventors.

Stay tuned.......