What did Wiscasset do with a rainy day? Have a parade anyway! Good call. Everyone we talked to agreed. That’s one more for normalcy.

So is First Congregational Church of Wiscasset’s return to singing. And just as good a call on requiring masks for it. As Sarah Whitfield reports this week, the church has adjusted repeatedly with the pandemic’s ebbs and flows. So have other area groups, governments, causes and businesses and, overall around the region, responsibility and responsiveness have reigned. That is how you do it.

With its size, regional fame and popularity, and other attributes, including owners who like to support the community, Wiscasset Speedway remains a venue Wiscasset is fortunate to have. That sound you hear on weekends is the sound of a Wiscasset business consistently filling a really big parking lot, the sound of generations of families passing down their pastime of racing, watching it, or both, and where Wiscasset’s classes of 2020 and 2021 graduated so their families and the rest of us could safely attend.

So, thank you, speedway, for all of the above and for your continued spotlight on veterans.

Thank you to everyone who does not make me feel like a wet blanket because I’m still wearing a face mask. When I mention to those I interview, I am fully vaccinated, this is just an extra precaution, every single person has been totally supportive. I’m wondering, is a face mask in stores and meetings and at events becoming that facial blemish you think everyone is noticing, when really, only you are?

Week’s parting observation: I sometimes am the only, or nearly the only person wearing a face mask wherever I am these days. It feels awkward, but it still feels right. And as long as it does, I’ll be the one in the face mask.