It was very funny too, I saw the invite, like demo of inhouse software X version YZ, so I kind of assumed it would be 40 people watching some powerpoint and some scripted demo. I only remembered to join because I happened to still be in front of the work computer.
I joined a few minutes early, we chit-chatted a bit (and I didn't ask how he was doing, as noted above). We started looking at the product and it had kind of a pre-meeting vibe, like, let me just show you this stuff as it connects to some stuff we've talked about before. After a few minutes of this, and nobody else joining, the "real meeting" not starting, I checked the participant list and it was just this Product Owner calling from Europe, his minion developer, and me. So this *was* the Real Meeting. 😅
Much worse than not asking how he was would have been to not show up at all, and it was pure luck that I did show up, I was just checking a few things before slamming the laptop shut and this notification popped up.