Loving the outdoor graduation

Hats off to the staff at the Columbia Falls High School. I thought the outdoor graduation was great and while skies were threatening, the weather held off just long enough.

In fact, it was downright pleasant.

The school should consider outdoor graduations in the future — this one was way more pleasant than roasting in packed gym. Hopefully we’ll be over the coronavirus crisis before the next one.

Looking around town, it seems like most folks are over the virus whether the virus is over us or not.

While infection rates across the U.S. continue to rise, the death rate is slowly going down.

Social distancing was great at the graduation ceremony, but there were plenty of graduation parties were people sat together and hugged and shook hands.

I don’t know how you get around it unless you stay at home and ignore your friends.

The party I attended was outside and it seems like outdoor events have a far less chance of infection.

Having said that, I’m not sure how we put people into the stands to watch a basketball game without some sort of vaccine.

It will be interesting to see if infection rates rise now that Glacier National Park is reopening.

I’ve been watching Wyoming’s numbers since Yellowstone reopened. Its total number of cases has increased, but its community transmission has not. The line is basically flat.

Flathead County hasn’t had a case in a month and a half, but we’ve seen outbreaks elsewhere in the state, so I don’t think the disease is done with us.

I still wear a mask in the grocery store, provided I don’t forget it at home. I know there’s a lot of politics surrounding masks, but masks are about not spreading the virus. Most masks won’t keep you from getting it.

But I meet a lot of different people over the course of the average week and who knows who has what. I’d rather not give what I may have picked up to someone else, so I wear a mask, plus I’ve had a lingering cough for 3 months. It’s not the ‘rona. I get it almost every spring — just a light cough, nothing else. I think it’s the cold and the damp in my old office.

Smith’s new self-checkout counters make it way easier to shop anyway and I usually can just buzz in and buzz out, which is nice.

It was good to see peaceful protests in Whitefish and Kalispell. Columbia Falls really isn’t a protests town. The last march in the streets here that I can remember was to legalize medical marijuana.

Have a good week.

Chris Peterson is the editor of the Hungry Horse News.