The US is faced with many serious health issues from Covid and its variants Delta and Omicron - to flu season and others things many of which resulted from the climate crisis that is sweeping across the country.

Currently there is an indoor mask mandate in NY where I live sending people to get tested and vaccinated as things are increasing exponentially. Everything is being affected - from the things we enjoy over Christmas holiday, to sports, education, the workplace, travel, and the way we live our lives.

Here in NYC another indoor mask mandate went into affect on Monday December 13, 2021. I prefer the simple black cloth masks - washing them after each use - but there are holiday masks and other patterns on Amazon and many local stores. Some of the nicest I've seen are home-made.

As always there are physical and emotional issues for people about mask wearing. Masks can get itchy and annoying indoors leaving many to wearing them below the nose just to breath properly.

Lately I noticed some people can't understand what you're saying when you wear a mask especially when the person speaking has an accent. You'd be surprised how much lip-reading people do without realizing it.

Then there's this... When you get used to seeing a new acquaintance always wearing a mask you don't really know what they look like. When we stopped wearing masks in recent months they were often hard to recognize. Here is an example from my life. During the summer of 2020 a man named Alex moved a few doors down from me. I ran into him wearing a mask in the laundry room, hall, elevators, lobby, and other common areas in the building. Then one day I met him waiting for the elevator and he wasn't wearing a mask so I didn't recognize him. He said hello and I shyly answered, "Alex?" after which we both laughed.

As part of the emotional challenges of our bipolar reality - there's conspiracy theories and indoctrination by those looking to make a statement. It's amazing how many people - often those frustrated, the mentally ill, and substance abuse users - just want to vent and be heard especially on social media.

As to Covid and it's variants - they are an End Time pandemic which will continue until the simulation of our reality closes.