Zoom, zoom, zoom - let me hear ya say heyo... awkward silence

On a stunning Sunday afternoon, I ran to meet "C" to keep him connected with conversation, classes, support and more by setting him up with Zoom

I ran about 5km to meet C at his home and we bonded, at a social distance, over our experiences of marathons (he'd run a few sub 3h marathons in his day!), the post (he's dressed as Postman Pat before) and the wonderful St Joseph's Hospice.

But as well as a chat and social interaction, a job was to be done and it turned out to be a doozie! Today's mission, which I chose to accept, was to help C connect to Zoom on his smart devices so that he could connect with more friends, chat, support and entertainment.

A marathon effort

I've done a LOT of video calls and quizzes. So many quizzes. So I thought this would be a quickie. Thankfully C was much more tech savvy and up to date than I expected. But, alas, his tablet was not.

The app wasn't even showing in the Play Store and after a bit of troubleshooting I diagnosed that his tablet could do with updating. We discovered it was on Android 4.2 and seeking permission to upgrade to 4.3! WOW.

According to an online article this update was available in 2013! 😮

This was gonna take a while, but after a sanitary wipe-down and handover, I talked C through the iterative process to check for, download and install updates. We actually had a bit of a laugh that we were seeing a timeline unfold in front of us and what was happening in those years. We also both love the film Groundhog Day!

After 2 hours we were only 2 years on to downloading Android 6, launched in 2015.

Hold the phone!

Well, while we were in a mini Groundhog Day of Android updates I thought we could get Zoom on his mobile phone. We got the app and even teed up a friend ready to do a call.

I so wanted his friend to invite C to a Zoom meeting so we could join the meeting, but, alas, she wasn't confident with Zoom. I thought it'd take 5 mins to set up an account to host a meeting. But alas not!

The phone actually seemed to be possessed , he'd get close to signing up and then the phone would go back, open settings and set an alarm! There were signs of damage to his screen protector and my diagnosis was that it was sending the screen haywire and not registering the right touches. Difficult when you need to enter name and email address to set up an account. It wasn't to be.

Deferred gratification

In the age of instant gratification, C was very happy with my help and was conscious that he had 5 more years of Android updates to go but two hours was enough. I was also ready to go home for lunch.

We called the friend to say we're close but not quite there.

C was looking forward to seeing all the Android updates complete and then joining the social gatherings that he's been missing since they went online since lockdown.

Was a pleasure to see C, to see C nice. As a Brucy Bonus, he even offered to be a running coach!