Since face mask guidelines have changed, usage has, to little surprise, been dropping to varying degrees, from what I am seeing around. You will still see me wearing one indoors and outdoors in public for the foreseeable future. When you see people who make this choice, it does not necessarily mean we are not vaccinated. 

By the time this publishes online and in print, I will be two weeks since my second shot, so all set on immunity according to the scientists and the wonderful LincolnHealth clinic where I got the shots. But as I understand from the scientists, as with a flu shot, the shots do not mean you can no longer pick up COVID-19, they just help you be less sick and probably not die if you get it. I would rather not get it at all. And if I pick it up, even if I don’t get sick, I’d just as soon not make anyone else sick with my particles. So thank you for respecting my choice to be a downer and stay masked.

No one can convince me the honor system is foolproof; seeing a person’s whole face does not reveal when or if they got fully or partly vaccinated. 

To the mask-free, I won’t wonder if you’ve had your shots if you don’t assume I, the masked, have not.

And may we all be thankful we have gotten through this much of the pandemic; the light at the end of the dark coronavirus tunnel brightens with each event announcement, from Windjammer Days to Wiscasset Art Walk, First Congregational Church of Wiscasset’s Summerfest and Wiscasset’s Fourth of July parade and fireworks. Will I still be wearing a mask in August for Schoonerfest? We shall see! 

Week’s parting observation: Thank you to area law enforcement for those signs that tell motorists their speed. They are good reminders to mind the speed limit, like the 25 mph limit near Wiscasset’s town office on Route 1, where one was in use early this week.