Escaping the City During the COVID Scamdemic, Part 4

Wherein all hell breaks loose on our way out the door

This is the 4th and final part of a series about my experience moving from a large metro area to a small rural town with my family, amidst the political and cultural chaos of the covid scamdemic. See part 1 here. See part 2 here. See part 3 here.

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In January 2021, my wife and I got our house ready to sell. It was, for both of us, a bittersweet affair. We had spent years finding the perfect “move up” house from our nearby starter home, and just three years later we were selling. So much had changed during that time, so quickly, it was all a bit much. The house was eventually staged, beautifully, and went on the market in February. It sold quickly, we probably should have asked for more.

The oddly rearranged for staging purposes Slugdaddy lair, until it wasn’t

JANUARY 21ST

Without getting into the weeds with specifics that wouldn’t matter anyway, our business revenue is most closely correlated with consumer sentiment. Our customers are largely U.S. consumers, and when they feel like things are getting better, or even just staying the same but positive, they are likely to contact us with an interest in our services. Throughout the first year of the scamdemic, most consumers seemed to feel like it would all be over soon, and so our business shrank but only by 11%. With the PPP making up most of that difference, for our business 2020 wasn’t good but it wasn’t that bad either. (Larger companies in our industry reported 50% revenue declines in 2020.) Our employees work largely on computers, and many of them had been wanting to work at home. They actually performed great from home, and it freed me up to move to the country. Headed into 2021, consumer optimism seemed to be returning… then January 21st rolled around and suddenly our business was struggling.

Something about Inauguration Day flipped a switch in the minds of consumers, at least where our company was concerned, and the number of them contacting us to buy our services dropped about 40% and stayed there until very recently. I think it was the recognition that we (Americans) were all in for the long haul with the pandemic, and this changed financial priorities in a way that made them less likely to buy our services. Just weird that it coincided with Biden’s inauguration.

This all also coincided with the sale of our house, and the purchase of another house that would require getting another mortgage. Financial scrutiny of business owners applying for mortgages is intense, especially during corona. No matter how much you have down, you’re monthly income still has the justify the payment these days. As our company’s revenue dropped, so also did the amount we were able to borrow on the property we would be purchasing. It was touch and go up to the back-to-back closings in April, whether or not the company revenues would continue to support the new loan.

WHITE KNUCKLE HOME BUYING IN AN INSANE PANDEMIC

For all of the reasons above, the home we decided on was far under our maximum loan amount, at first. After the bidding war that ensued, bringing the price up above asking, it was somewhat under our maximum. That maximum kept dropping, along with our business revenues, and my spirits as years of progress seemingly vanished overnight. Thankfully (to God) it never came below the amount we needed. It was frightening though.

We purchased a small equestrian property on about 5.5 acres, inside a neighborhood with some equestrian lots, some lake lots, and lots of trails and nature. We don’t intend on owning horses anytime soon, but someday we might. In the meantime, it was plenty of space to spread out and not too much land for a family comprised, at the time, of 100% city people.

TAKING THE LAST TREE THAT’S LEFT

The Bentley only ever parked here, at the new property, one night. It wasn’t practical in the country, and I wasn’t comfortable looking wealthier than I now was. Also, driving back and forth 200 miles round trip to Atlanta on a regular basis would have worn it out quick, and I couldn’t have done that to such a beauty. I sold it to a dealership in Atlanta (with just barely 24,000 miles on the odometer,) and bought a RAM truck. The Bentley did look gorgeous while it was parked out front of the farm/compound/house/whatever.

It was truly sweet while it lasted. Godspeed my 616hp friend.

SO WE’RE POOR NOW?

This was an actual question my daughter (6 at the time) asked me shortly after we moved. Something I definitely never wanted to hear. “No sweetheart,” I told her, “we’re not poor, we just don’t have as much as we used to. We’re still blessed compared to where we might be.”

Totaling up the costs of covid to me personally is a big number, but to our country WOW. It’s trillions and trillions of dollars, and millions and millions of lives lost (vaccine deaths and medical malpractice included.) This has been a colossal clusterfuck and it may well end in mass depopulation/genocide. Nothing is off the table in a fourth turning.

NEW LIFE AND NEW LIVES

If you’ve read all of this series, thank you! (Subscribe it/share it/hook a brother up) Along our path out into the country I lost literally everything I valued before 2020, except my wife (who perhaps I almost lost too, and we still can’t see eye to eye.) But it’s kinda good. I wasn’t all that happy, deep down, in the old normal.

Since settling in out here, I’ve actually made two good friends; one of them’s an ER Doctor (believes/believed in the vax, but he’s never treated me less than for it.) I can totally hang out with them if there’s ever another lockdown. I recently found out my wife is pregnant, and I was hoping to have one more, so wish granted. She and I are working on resolving our differences, and healing our wounds. (She’s still as beautiful as the day we met 17 years ago. She’s totally worth it.) Frankly, the very public failure of the vaccination campaign, and the now undeniable truth that it was sold to the public on false premises, has gone a long way toward resolving our differences. (Thank you Pfizer?) We’re now much closer to the Army base where my oldest son is stationed in military intelligence. He can’t get sent anywhere since he won’t take the shot, so he gets to visit often which is awesome. Life in the country is vastly different that anything we knew before (fodder for future newsletters.) My commute (driving the kids to school) now looks quite a bit different; I pass a “Let’s Go Brandon” flag along the way and sometimes the air smells like cow shit, but not often. It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
(In part I’m sure because I didn’t take the death shot lol)

Escaping the City During the COVID Scamdemic, Part 1

Escaping the City During the COVID Scamdemic, Part 2

Escaping the City During the COVID Scamdemic, Part 3