WASH HANDS...YOURS, MINE, HERS, HIS...GOOD, NOW GO BACK TO WORK

I am not making this up, I saw a sign in a restaurant rest room about one week ago and it said exactly what you see here.  For some strange reason, it got me going.  I got back to the table and where my two sons were seated along with the Voice from the Kitchen.  Since it was in the period before the food was served I decided it was safe to mention my reaction to the sign.  WRONG!  
I mentioned that I had found it a little humorous that the English communications skills of the person leave so much to be desired.  We laughed about some of the messages that we saw in the language.
Employees only?  No. 1 son says, "Of course, if you're not an employee somewhere you can't afford to eat here."
Employee?  What about the people at the table with the slob customer who comes back with grimy, streptococcus hands?
The Voice from the Kitchen asks, "Whose hands are they supposed to wash?"  You might know, the tiny lady sitting deep in the corner of the booth found the most challenging interpretation of the sign.  
Actually, the conversation continued in typical Dion fashion.  Since we are no longer sitting at the table, the crude innuendo and the substitute words for various and sundry bodily functions dictate that I no pursue the topic any further.  Probably not a bad idea.
I have had similar experiences in other parts of the world, but I think that what happened this time is worth remembering.
So, I leave you for now.  My life is getting a little looser lately, so I hope to be back.  I have a ton of stuff I want to tweak you with.  

WHERE ARE YOU NOW?

Sit atop the hill that God gives you and take it all in, all the time

I am a person who has seen many people come and go in and out of his life.  I was reminded of this the other day when Loraine told me where she is now living.  It made me think of my life story and the parade of people who have marched through it.
In the first place, I was a stranger to many of the young people with whom I grew up.  I lived in one town and went to school in the city across the river.  The children around where I lived spoke only English, a language that I had to learn.  They went to the local public school and I went to the parochial school across the river.
When I graduated from the eighth grade, I went to a boarding school Catholic seminary instead of to the local high school.  At that point I was separated from the people with whom I had studied for eight or nine years as well as from the local people with whom I had played while at home from school.

In the seminary, people dropped out regularly, never to be seen again.  I was in the seminary for twelve years and this pattern never stopped.  Along the way, I was assigned to study in Rome, Italy so I had to leave the United States.  I said my goodbyes and one of them from a closer than average friend was his saying to me, "We're laughing and smiling now, but we may never see one another again."  We never did.  He died young.  
Of course, the people I came to know while studying in Italy are for the majority scattered all over the world.  Many of them quietly in their grave.
Along the way I made friends in Italy, France, Spain, Mexico, Canada, the Philippines, Japan, Madagascar, Brasil and other places around the globe.  

The mystery about this is that all these people, many now nameless for loss of detailed memory, still remain a part of me.  I remember the classmates with whom I was in school in New Hampshire, in Rome and even some in the community college that I attended for three semesters in San Diego.  I remember the missionaries with whom I lived and worked.  I remember the teachers who formed me, from the kindergarten on.  I remember the girl that I escorted to the junior senior dance in the eighth grade.  I remember so many people and I more than remember them, I live with them in spirit.

I worked for thirty plus years in the electronics manufacturing industry.  I worked for many companies and with many good people and with many who might be considered somewhat less than good.  I still stay in contact with many of them, the good and the not so good; the beautiful and the not so beautiful; the honest and the not so honest, but every one, human and a work of God.

I thank God that my faith in Him and the Communion of His people keeps them all alive in my heart and soul.  I am never alone for the Church is always my home and its saints are my constant companions.  And, you know what?  Even the ones whom I didn't like and for whom I certainly will not cry when they answer the Curtain Call are treasures for which I thank God.  Not just because they make for good story telling, but most of all because I remember the lessons that God taught me through them.  From this perspective, they too are gifts from Him.  

So whoever you may be, wherever you may be, always keep every soul with whom you come in contact as a treasure in your heart and your soul.  Each and every one is a gift of God to you.  Yes, every one, even those you've been trying to forget.  They too are in your memory for a reason; God's reason.  Seek it out and it shall be unveiled to you.  Trust me on this one.

TEXTING ENGLISH, ETC -

i tried replicating this on my cellphone and literally went incredibly crazy trying!!!!

hi gd am b at u soon
or if I get a txt from the pi - gud am kmsta kyo

Now, look, I can read and write cursive in a language or two, but I have to admit that I sometimes get lost in "txtglish, txtgalog, txtikano, txtanish, etc."  I thought it was bad when I would get stuff like, ROTFLMAO, or maybe even just LOL to say nothing about what might be the difference between :) and :-) or even ;-) or :o.

i have been falling into the habit of not punctuating anything and just rolling along writing away with not a capital letter not a comma or anything just plain old words strung together for the recipient to decipher and if you think that it makes it hard for you to understand the string of thought or maybe i should say thread as is the present custom you should try me in french with no accents and no cedillas and it gets even worse in spanish with no til on the n and no accent on the verbs to differentiate for the tense and the mood o yeah grt stuff ohhh!!!!~~

Back to normal, if you don't mind.  This all got started in me when I ran into a piece on the Internet about the deterioration of the English language as it used to be called back about 50 or 60 years ago.
The author was talking about how words today don't mean what they used to mean even though they are still described in the dictionary the way they were back then.  He gave the word "literal" or "literally"as an example.  Then as I was reading another article, not a satire like the first one, I ran into the word "incredible" used in the wrong way, just as the word "literally" is used the wrong way so often.  My example was like, "He was incredibly old."  Hmmm, sounds like me.  Except I am credibly alive, so something, somewhere has to be out of sync here.  Besides, my birth anniversary is just around the corner, and that is a real and credible date.  It says so right there on the calendar.  So there.
But my incredibly, literal favorite is when I am filling out a form and the information to be provided is "Gender."  There is never enough room to write "masculine."  By the same token, there is never enough room to register the complaint that I am not a grammar classification.  Nope, not me.  I am a real, no holds barred hot blooded French Canadian male with the attributes to prove it.

So, my 21st century friends, neighbors and relatives, you have to bear with me because I am not going to stop punctuating my writing.  I am going to try to be true to the grammar rules like I know them.  I do not use plural pronouns to signify singular antecedents and when I want to use a relative pronoun, I will still use "who" for people, and not "that."  Believe me, I don't care what you think about that. My numb and arthritic fingers make touch errors, but my mind is still clear and I strive to keep it under control...and I tell you that sister Mary of the Holy Guardian Angels never taught me anything but right grammar, French or English.  So there.

So, all of you, have an incredibly great time, and I mean that, literally.