hi hfx wrapped

disclaimer: this is kind of meant to be ironic (i got a “PC optimum wrapped” for god’s sake)

hi all, to end the new year, i figured i’d send out a summary email for hi hfx. enjoy!

total messages: 301

first week: May 29, 2025

first message: “Trident cafe. Quiet, calming, and cozy <3”

highest volume week: Week 11 (39 messages)

lowest volume week: Week 27 (1 message)

shortest message: “Ahoy!”

longest message: “It’s 10am on a sunny Saturday morning in August.
I’d just finished running a 20km run at the chain of lakes trail with a few friends.
We started at 6am and finished around 9am. We run for fun, weird right?
After grabbing coffee at Uncommon Grounds, I dropped my friend off at her house.
It’s 10am (remember?) and I’m feeling fulfilled, calm, and excited for the day ahead,
instead of taking the turns which would get me back to my place quickest, I decided to take a couple random turns.
Why not cruise the city on a sunny Saturday morning after shitting in the woods hours earlier?
After my second random turn, I see something that confused and intrigued me; a moustached dude in his twenties, sat behind a table on the street, talking to a few people at his stand.
He’s got jugs of what looks to be lemonade on the table. I can’t be sure. A moustached man selling lemonade on the corner? Never seen that before.
A man on the corner with jugs of urine, his own or someone else’s – I have seen before.
Before jumping to conclusions that this guys got jugs of his pee on the table for free consumption, I yelled out my window (interrupting his possible new pee drinking companions/customers)
“HEY WHAT YOU GOT GOING ON OVER HERE?!!?”
(Semi Important Reminder; I’m in runners high cruise mode at this point – the window’s already rolled down.)
“It’s a free lemonade stand dude, want some?” He asked.
“Sure dude.” I said as I parked up.
Grabbed a cup of lemonade from him, and AH – Refreshing!
“this is cool and whyyy are you doing this?” I asked.
“I’m trying to promote my new social media platform that is actually social, and I don’t want to run ads to promote it, so I figured a good ol lemonade stand could work.”
He told me about HiHFX, and I thought it was really cool; likeminded residents slowing down and sharing something nice with their neighbours.
We chatted for 10 minutes about the state of social media and how it feels more self serving than community driven
Everyone can have distaste for the way things are, but he decided to do something about it – which I admire.
He gave me a card and told me to write about this interaction on the platform.
I asked for his IG, which of course he didn’t have.
And we went our separate ways.
This morning I found the card he gave me, in my laptop sleeve.
I could’ve just thrown it out and moved on with my life, but finding the card brought back these memories.
I could’ve made an excuse to not join the 20km run that morning. I could’ve not shit on my shoes in the woods. I could’ve not taken the random turns. I could’ve driven right past mustachio lemonade cool guy.
But I’d always have that open loop in my mind, saying ‘you met that guy who was building something cool, and you never contributed what you could to it.’
Fuck that.
Hi Hfx!”

hihfx.ca