How Do You Connect To Your Family With The Internet?

Do you have family scattered around the U.S. and maybe the world? I do…well at least they are scattered around Texas, mostly the Houston area. And then there’s the son who didn’t think Texas was hot enough so he went to live in Phoenix, Arizona. Got married there and has a good wife and three beautiful (and smart) kids. I was in Phoenix a few times and it was really hot. People there would say “it’s hot alright, but the humidity is so low that when you sweat it just boils off and helps keep you cool”. What a crock. Did you ever notice how people look away from you when their lying?  When you can fry an egg on the pavement in two minutes that’s too hot for my tastes.

As for my son taking off to Phoenix, I can’t say too much though because when I retired and saw all my kids busy with their lives and doing OK without Dad, I scattered myself too.  Houston was just too hot in the summer and the mosquitos.  Oh those Gulf coast mosquitos! I heard stories that they were so thick around Freeport, TX and so big that the locals there call them “Freeport Gallon Nippers”.  Then there’s the movie director making a film in the area who said there were two types of mosquitos there.  There was the one so small they could fly right through a screen door and the other type was so big they could open it.

Well, back to my connection story.  The challenge is keeping in touch with kids and my extended family from the North East to the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean.

Of course, like most, my main form of connection is email. It’s fast, easy to use and when it’s time to get a coffee or take care of some other business, I don’t have to put anyone on hold. Besides, I can always change something I wrote before I hit the send button. It’s hard to unsay something when you’ve put your foot in your mouth in a phone conversation.

Even so, there’s nothing like hearing the voice of your loved one, so my other main form of communication with friends and family is Skype. You know about Skype don’t you? I use it fairly often and even though I’m on a DSL connection (that’s a considerable step down from broadband in the speed department) I can usually get a crystal clear connection. Remember the old telephone commercial on TV that showed a pin bouncing on the floor and them pretending that your phone line was so good that you could hear that pin hit the floor? Well I’ve got really bad hearing now thanks to working in very high noise areas many years ago. OSHA wasn’t around then. Anyhow, with Skype, I can call anywhere to the U.S., usually getting a great connection and talk to my kids, siblings or friends for an hour and pay a lot less than for a Starbucks latte. Go figure. I’m a big fan of Skype. Now Skype has video too.  I’ll talk about that some day. If you’ve got family, like most of us do, all over the country and maybe the world, I’d highly recommend you get Skype. The software is free and it works. Until next time. Be safe and God Bless.

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