An old acquaintance and messing about in the attic

2007, my truck in Nova Scotia

This morning I received a surprise email, from a guy asking if I remembered picking him up hitchhiking a long time ago. And I did! In fact, I had been thinking about him only yesterday. It was 14 years ago, in 2007, and I was on my way to visit friends in Nova Scotia. I did not yet live there, in fact I did not really have an address anywhere, I was in the process of moving from Vancouver to Toronto.

So, somewhere near Hartland New Brunswick I turned off the TransCanada for gas and to look for a camping spot, because it was evening and I was tired of driving all day. While putting gas in my truck a young hitchhiker walked up to me and asked for a ride to Halifax Nova Scotia. I said Sorry, I was about to get off the road for the night. He pleaded his case and then left, presumably waiting for some kinder soul to stop there for gas. I reconsidered and after paying for the gas I told him I would take him a little further down the road, but I had no intention of driving all the way to Nova Scotia that night, and Halifax was kind of out of my way.

He loaded his bag in the back of the truck and we proceeded. He was chatty and as it turned out quite an interesting person with interesting opinions on things. For a young fellow he seemed to have done a lot of different things. Also he was interested in what I had to say as well. The conversation was interesting enough that I was reluctant to end it by dropping him off so I told him I would continue driving as long as I could, provided that he kept me awake. We actually made it all the way to Halifax.

He had been living in Toronto but he was an American who had been on the road for quite a while. He was going to Halifax because his girlfriend lived there and he actually thought she would put me up for the remainder of the night if we got there. We did get there but she wasn't interested in having a strange woman guest overnight so I continued driving to my destination which was a little over an hour away from Halifax. I must have given him my email address because he emailed me a couple of days later to ask if I made it okay and to say thanks for the ride and interesting conversation. I emailed him back and that was the end of the conversation, until today. He said in today's email that he came across our old exchange of messages while, I dunno, cleaning up his mailbox? He wondered if I remembered him.

I emailed back. I am curious as to what he did with himself over the last 14 years and where he is now. I am guessing he is in his mid to late 30s, possibly very early 40s, as he was quite young back then. Anyway, we'll see if he responds, I hope so.

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Last fall I bought some fiberglass insulation on sale to put in my attic. Then I got too ill to actually do it. I did manage to get the bales up into the attic but they sat there unopened all winter until now. This afternoon I geared up—old clothes, hat, goggles, mask, gloves, headlamp—and climbed into the attic to spread the insulation. I had 7 bales and managed to lay 5 of them down before I couldn't stand it anymore. Fiberglass insulation is awful stuff! The attic already has blown-in insulation, and that is pretty awful stuff too. I have a trapdoor to the attic and the blown-in stuff leaks down whenever I open it so I had to spread a tarp on the floor below as well. Filthy filthy stuff!

I got the worst of it done, all the places that required crawling around under low rafters. I think what's left is maybe one bale's worth, and it's all in an area where I can stand up. Thank the gods for that. However, I lost my utility knife somewhere in all the blown-in stuff. I tried looking for it but gave up pretty quick; easier to just get another one.