Rejoining the iseries workforce

[rslancastr@xxxxxxx]

All:

I have thought of asking this on the list before, but don't think I 
have.

If I have, my apologies for this rerun.

My name is Robert (Bob) Lancaster.  I was a programmer on IBM midrange 
boxes (System 32/34/38/AS400/iseries) for thirty years until August 
2008 when I suffered a massive stroke which placed me in hospital for 
11 months, and paralyzed the left side of my body, putting me in a 
wheel chair.

Although my physical problems continue, my cognitive problems were, for 
the most part, short-lived (other than things like occasionally 
forgetting whether or not I have sent an email to a mailing list).

I am now on disability, but hope one day to return to the work force, 
and am anxious to try my hand at it again.  If I still lived in the Los 
Angeles area, I could easily find an old client or employer willing to 
let me try my hand, but my wife and I moved up here to Salem, Oregon 
this year to be near our new grandchild.  I have no business contacts 
up here at all.

My question to you all:

Do you have any suggestions as to ways I could test my abilities?  I 
know that there are many things I can't recall now, but would easily 
come back with some exposure (things like the function keys within 
various utilities), and some things which will take more digging 
(Free-format RPG isn't as deeply stored in my brain as is old-school 
RPG, for example).  My logic and reasoning abilities are pretty well 
intact, so I have little fear that my coding and design skills are 
lost.  All of these things will take some time on an iseries box to 
determine and work around.

I have a PC, but none of the old software I once used to connect with 
clients.

Any and all suggestions for getting me "back in the saddle" would be 
greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Robert Lancaster