Like many these days, I wear a mask when venturing out in public. So does wife Amy.

They are a pain to get used to but, helpfully, they will help keep us from getting infected.

As a man, I also find some advantages of hiding my face behind a mask.

For one thing, I have two bridges to fill in gaps of missing teeth, one gap caused by a German resident demonstrating outside an Air Force Base in Germany who didn’t like me taking his picture. His surprise punch sent three of my lower front teeth into the grass.

An Air Force dentist at Ramstein Air Force Base built a temporary bridge to fill the gap and suggested it get a “permanent one” when I got back to the states.  Never got around to it. His temporary still work fine and I got it more than 25 years ago.

Another larger bridge fills in for teeth that I left on U.S. 221 on the evening of Nov. 9. 2012. when I laid my bike down to try to avoid hitting a cow in Roanoke County between Cave Spring and the bottom of Bent Mountain.

Without the bridge, I look like a “missing link” from the backwoods of Appalachia.

But I don’t need them while wearing a mask because no one sees my mouth or teeth anyway.

If I didn’t have a beard, I could also miss shaving while wearing a mask,

For another matter, my face has a few twists and turns in my appearance because of the beating from that motorcycle accident. My right eye is now lower than my left and my jaw was rearranged somewhere.

The mask helps “masks” those problems.

A couple of bright sides from wearing a mask during these times of the Coronavirus pandemic.