Like most of the people we know, we have been blessed to only have a couple noteworthy points of impact during this pandemic (so far). The primary impact has really been social. Not being able to hang out in groups has changed our routine greatly. The second highest impact has been the availability of groceries. We’ve been blessed to not have been impacted financially by this.

Social Impact of Social Distancing

Let me be the zillionth person to say that social distancing sucks. I don’t think I realized how much I really enjoy (non digital) social interaction before this pandemic hit. Since the social distancing rules were implemented here in Arizona we have limited our social engagements with anyone outside of our house. Once every other week or so we’ve gone on a bike ride with our very closets friends but outside of that, all other social contact came to a complete and utter halt. No more going to church, attending life group, no weekend gatherings, meetups with parents and teachers from Maxine’s school, no school for that matter… Social distancing may technically mean staying 6′ away from the people that don’t live in your house but what it really means is a complete halt of all things social.

• I love seeing people face to face.
• I love contact with people. (think: high fives, hand shakes and hugs)
• I love sharing food with people.
• I love being inside the personal bubble of people I don’t live with.
• I love meeting new people.

No TP… What about the three sea shells?

It’s crazy that pretty much every store (down to gas stations and convenience stores) has been sold out of certain products like toilet paper and paper towels. For a while it was even difficult to purchase eggs, canned goods and meat. The bulk food store we purchase most of our food from on a trip once every two weeks has been ravaged of a lot of the stuff we commonly buy, even as late in the pandemic as today (April 25th 2020). Admittedly the impact on our diet hasn’t been profound but we have switched from eating a lot of chicken to mostly beef because there was no raw chicken available to purchase during our last trip to the store. All this really did was change what we eat rather than preventing us from being able to eat or even preventing us from being able to enjoy what we are eating so the impact is pretty low. We did almost run out of toilet paper, but we got that remedied before we had to figure out how to use the three sea shells. ^_^

Mortgage rates are all over the place

Just before the pandemic took hold we started our search to find an amazing rate from an awesome lender to refinance our FHA loan in to a conventional loan and get rid of the PMI while also primarily looking to lower the percentage rate as much as possible. There was a tiny window of time where interest rates were available in the high 2% range before they went bonkers and now it’s proving quite difficult to get locked in at a sub 3% fixed interest rate on a 30 year loan. This tiny detail combined with the fact that showing a home, especially an occupied home, not being socially acceptable has kept us from moving out east as we continue our purely dreaming adventure through life. To be honest, this is pretty cool though because we love it here in Scottsdale, Arizona. The weather is perfect, the people we know are so awesome it’s hard to explain and the education opportunities for Maxine are just top notch. We’re in no hurry to go anywhere. ^_^