Another Goodbye

On a previous post I suggested that this was going to be a year of goodbyes, and, unfortunately, I'm right. Here's a picture of my good friend and ex-student Ericka Bundy who just left Vermont to move to Austin, Texas. She's one of my all-time favorite students - mainly because of her complete disassociation of what time meant. I normally threaten students with immediate, painful death if they're late (unless they bring me donuts or cookies), but Bundy was so utterly charming and otherworldly about the entire thing that I could never get too mad at her (although I did on one occasion draw two clock-faces on the board to explain the difference between real time and Bundy-time, a story which she still tells with relish). Ericka has been a great friend to both me and my son and we'll both miss her. She's a person of tremendous courage who has overcome some monumental challenges - I am really proud of her accomplishments, and also proud to call her my friend. I'm posting a picture of the day we helped her get packed. The fellow holding the pizza is also named Scudder, although it is his first name - which I've never seen except for Vermont, wherein I now know of two people with Scudder as a first name. If you ever take the bike ferry out to the islands you'll get the chance to meet him (a prince among good fellows). There's also a picture of Ericka's three-legged cat Moe, who she called me to help drive to the cat chiropractor last April first - and, in classic Vermont fashion, it wasn't an April Fool's Day joke.