All Good Things...

Cue Jackson Browne please...gotta come to an end.

A short post before I hit my pillow. That song is the only thing I can think of right now.

It sucks. Softball is out of the Olympics for 2012, and USA lost today. Japan played a great game, and Ueno has to take tons of the credit. She pitched 23 innings yesterday and then came out and was still great today. Catherine pitched well today too. The two hits off her were good pitches, rise balls that were up high. They just went after it and got it. USA just could not get bats going when they needed to. Bustos' homer was a thing of beauty as always, but she is not the whole team.

Ah well. Things happen for a reason, even if it is not apparent right now. Pick up the pieces, learn from it and move on.

JR lost his passport yesterday at the Bank of America Center. The employees there were so helpful in looking for it and very concerned that after hours of searching it never turned up. Vince and Liz spent a few hours yesterday going between the Police Station, the BOAC, the American Embassy, and the passport bureau. Today they went back to the bureau, the BOAC to make some copies, and then back to the Bureau. We hope that tomorrow JR's new passport will be ready to pick up with no glitches. Thank the Lord that we have Roy, one of our interpreters with us yesterday. He was instrumental in helping Vince and Liz get through all the red tape at the Police Station. Lesson learned here - Liz was prepared for almost everything - a peanut allergy reaction, kids being kidnapped - but not for the simplest of all things related to children, losing something important. Copy your passport and visas multiple times (not color) and keep them different places. At least Liz had the residence papers separate from the passports, as they had both passport numbers and visa numbers in them. That proved helpful.

At the end of the game tonight, after the medal ceremony, five players (Bustos, Kretschman, Jung, Flowers, and Berg) all left their cleats around home plate. It is a signal that they are retiring from USA softball. After that, the girls from all 3 teams got a bucket full of balls and made the numbers 2016 with softballs in front of home plate. They then all got together, chanting "Save softball" and posed for group pictures. A very sad moment to see.

The blog does not end here - I still have a couple days left here, and pictures to finish editing and posting. So check back again. But I am now off to bed, with this song still in my head:

...Like a river flows
Rolling 'till it ends in the sea
Our pleasure grows
Rolling 'till it ends in you and me
Rolling 'till it ends in you and me
Here where the angels
Have appeared and are gone
Your face like an ember
Glows in the dawn
But I want you to remember
All wild deeds live on
All good times, all good friends
All good things got to come to an end...

Thanks Jackson!
Wan an! (Good night)