Technology never ceases to amaze ! Advances in the last 50 or 60 years, comfortably within my lifetime, have progressed at break-neck speed.

It used to be that folks would to write letters with ink on paper. Then the paper was tucked in an envelope and taken to the U.S. Post Office. Your intended recipient would receive the letter in three or four days, if you were lucky .

There will come a day when people look at you quizzically when you talk about “snail mail” and wonder about the way we did things long ago. Let’s not forget though, letters were once written by intermittently dipping a quill in ink.

Yes, a quill is one of the heavier duty feathers of a bird. Hell, think back further when people made their own ink !

I digress.

Today was momentous. We had our first Zoom session with kids and grandkids.

We’re pretty well scattered: California, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey (surely I forgot one or two) . But we all had a visit yesterday via our computers and ZOOM, a remote meeting software that enables a face to face, real time visit regardless of everyone’s locale.

No, that capability isn’t new, but ZOOM sneaks the technology in the back door of our homes , or the back porch if you prefer.

Gaps between visits seem a little lessened.

Who saw this coming ? Surely not this old farmer !