COVID Diaries - Mom and Google Voice. Lesson 1.

At 9am, I tried to help mom make a google voice account.  This was at her request.  As the call starts, I have optimism and faith in her.  She's taught on blackboard and canvas, she grades online, she can explain why one student internship management software is better than another one in terms of features. I'm estimating 15 minutes, 20 tops.

First, I got her onto a Jitsi video call.  That took a second longer than it should have, but we had to grant some permissions.  The video call starts. It took us several minutes to get screen sharing going.  "What am I supposed to hit?" 

Once I could see what she was doing, we went to Google Voice, she picked a number, that part went pretty fast.

Next, she has to install the app on her phone.  It's here that the wheels really started to fall off the wagon.  She was foiled by the 'double click the side button' to install thing.  My iPhone is much older so I didn't even know what she was talking about until I youtubed it.  It was another couple minutes for her to get her case off the phone so she could feel the side button and double click it properly. 

After the app is installed, she was able to swipe through and find it. Okay.  We open it up.  "What's my google password? Is it the one I use to turn on the computer?"

That takes us to Jitsi meeting number two.  Screen share was faster this time since we did it 20 minutes ago. (That 15-20 minute time frame?  No.  I was wrong.)  We go into Firefox preferences to find her saved passwords. She see the password, recognizes it, and goes forth installing the app.  Also, Mom thinks I can perform miracles.

Except now, for some reason she can't go back to a regular video call.  She's stuck in some screen sharing vortex.  Without a regular video call she can't hold up her phone and show me what it's doing. Eventually I hang up the video call.

Now she calls me from Dad's phone (which means he's not golfing).  And then all the sudden she's all 'why is my phone ringing?'  Followed by 'how do I hang up?'.  (How do I hang up?!?)  

Relevant point here is that mom is hearing impaired... Mom's literally got two phones in her hands.  She can't really identify that it was Dad's phone making the noise, not hers.  Eventually I was able to identify it as Dad's timer, not a phone call. (How do I hang up?)  I guess she knew how to stop the timer.  

Now she's laughing so hard she's crying.  I'm starting to laugh too.  We're both losing it.  Also, we're at 10am my time and I said we had to be done.  She has the app on her phone and can answer calls. She can't make them yet, or text. 

I guess agenda for lesson 2 is how to hang up the phone (in google voice or regular phone).  That may take the whole time.  But if not, we'll add how to dial in google voice.

I'm reserving texting in google voice app and online for a later lesson. There's only so much whiskey.