Where are they now? - Damien (again)

When I last checked in on Damien, he had just returned from a bicycling tour of parts of Europe and was still happily using his converted fire truck as his weekend cottage and writing studio.

Just after getting this site back up and running, I took a chance that Damien's email address hadn't changed and sent off a message telling him that it was back. Sure enough, he replied, including an attached document that he said would tell me "what happened to the Fire-Truck". This filled me will a bit of dread, as I was envisioning a smoldering pile of debris after some pyrotechnic mishap!

As it turned out, that was not the case, a happy ending was more in the telling, but I'll let Damien tell it:

"I met a young mid-twenties couple who were homesteading on 40 acres of land they had just purchased. They were living in a small house trailer with a 1500W generator … and I offered them the truck as their new live-in mobile condominium."

"The fellow who owned the land where the Fire-Truck was parked had just sold his business and I had to leave … I was also having health issues … and heading off to live in Zihuatenejo with Perma for a month … all happening at the same time."

"The Fire-Truck was a lot of fun building and Perma and I had it as our weekend getaway-retreat from 1991 to 2017 which was 26 years of non-stop fun and good-times. Giving the Fire-Truck away, I even paid the tow fee … and it felt like I was passing it down to the next generation."

"Andrew and Victoria and their two dogs are now living their first winter in-the-woods in the Fire-truck, burning lots of wood in the wood-stove, and I hear they are really enjoying it."

(Sharkey again): So, that should pretty much be the end of that, right? Well, being irrepressible, Damien got himself a replacement writing studio/weekend cabin:

(Damien:) "Not skipping a beat … this is the back rear box off a meat-delivery-truck which I bought about three years ago. It is insulated with 3” of foam-insulation top-bottom and on all sides."

"The meat-box is now my writing studio … at the same location that I kept the Fire-Truck at previously. The new owner now lets me keep this on the same land for a small monthly fee. The box is 24 feet long … the front 8 feet I call the “studio”. The rear part is 16 feet long and I call that “the loft”. I have three 300ft lawnmower extension cords connected, which provides 10 amps on each line with the voltage staying above 100 volts. Down to minus 10C (14°F) it keeps us pretty warm."

"The rear loft part of the studio [has] a bunk-bed, good air circulation and venting, a rear writing desk and small kitchen. It is totally sealed … no windows and no skylights. If the weather dips below minus 10C I shut down the front studio-part and move into the back with only that part being heated. There is an air-conditioner in the front section which keeps the entire meat-box very cool even on very hot summer days."

(Sharkey here): While I was sunning myself on the Oregon beach on New Years Day, Damien and Perma were taking the culture and sights in Cuba. Who says you can't have it all ?

"Having a hidden log cabin in the woods can't be beat. I miss the Fire-Truck but for numerous reasons (financial and logistical and health-wise) we all have to move on."