@brclarke
@ridingviking

Thanks a lot for your words!

But i would like to tell a story about how the pandemic situation affected me and others the good way:

Before the actual situation I was training old people (70-92yrs) in using a smartphone. Doing a workshop every 4 weeks and its free of costs. Came to this accidentally trough a neighbor who did it before and asked me if I could help because he had accepted too many participants once.

So I got to know an 81yrs old women. She is nearly blind means she has a remaining sight of 15%. She is using her computer with help of a software based magnifier and a screen reader. I got asked by her if could help her with a computer problem.

I fixed it and I recognized what difficulties blind people have to conquer if they have less skills and understanding of a computer. I offered her a personal training which forced by the pandemic situation we made by help of remote desktop software.
Teached her for health security reasons in the times of high incidences how to do online banking, how to shop secure online, how to download, transfer and listen a podcast/audiobook on her mp3 player, how to make a birthday card from a picture and so on.
Found out also that she was running into trouble with her iphone and the voice over functions nearly after every IOS update. Trained her on a better use of the iphone and set up with her shortcuts to make her iphone life more comfortable. Showed her how an ipad can function as a portable computer and how she can listen to the daily newspaper on it.

From March 2020 on I "adopted" (by her demand for friends) another 5 blind people (76-88yrs). I act as their 24/7 helpdesk and I train them remotely in handling computers, iphone/ipads and every other issue they would like to do with these devices. I organized vaccine appointments for them because the german process to this is a little complex to stand for old people. Meanwhile we meet regulary on zoom to talk, to discuss and share their belongings.

In a zoom meeting I saw a bookshelf full of motorcycle literature. I asked about and the blind guy told me that he had owned a brandfree motorcycle repair shop which he started as a mecchanic in 1965. Since he is fully vaccinated I visited him and he showed me his 5 motorcycle collection in his garage. I felt in love with his 1985 BMW R80 HPN Adventure but we haven`t yet spoken about....


So i got new valuable friends who share their life experience with me and who supported me in taking my decission of cutting off a long lasting friendship. I lost one friend which still hurts sometimes but I have won 5 new ones. I call them my Gang of Blinds and they filled up my life in the past months with awesome fun and satisfaction.

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