Bonding with a co-worker

I am isolated from my current co-workers. Got hired in April 2020, a month after Covid started in March 2020, have never been in-house. All I know of everyone, aside from 3 or so meet-ups in the past 2 years, is how they act during our morning Teams meeting.

One guy, a Subject Matter Expert, I'd always considered a blow-hard, because during the morning meetings, he's always bloviating! And then there's his annoying speech impediment: One day I counted him saying "I...I...I...I...I" five times while trying to start one sentence.

Today, though, he called me on Teams to have a conversation about an upcoming assignment. We talked about the work for about 15 minutes, then spent the next hour or more talking about our lives and experiences and families... (Re the latter: His family sounds great---he's my age, and his grown kids are arguing about who he will live closest to when he retires, versus me: "Geez, when I get sick, my cats can't take care of me" and "Geez, I hope I don't die before my cats, because who will take care of them?")

I'd always been annoyed by this guy before, but after really talking to him for the first time in 2 years, I liked him. And I was energized after the conversation: A real conversation with a real person! Living alone and working from home, I never get to talk to anyone---it was nice!