How far back should we go? Some of the things I did in the past have disappeared from my life. For instance I was a Red Cross Water Safety Instructor and taught swimming and Life Saving for many years. I was also an avid skier for 30 years, and member of the US Ski Patrol for several years. Those activities are no longer a part of my life.

Beginning after my retirement in Germany in 1987 I began a serious interest (passion, really) in Volksmarching. I piled up over 13000 kilometers in over 900 walks, in nine countries, but of course mostly in Germany. An ordinary weekend would have two 20 kilometer walks included, and often a midweek walk thrown in. A back operation in 1996 cut me back to only two ten kilometer walks on a weekend, plus the midweek walk when it came along. When I moved to Ireland in May 1998, that ended the ready availability of marches, and my mobility has decreased considerably.

Travel has always played a big part in my life. Earlier job assignments in Taiwan gave me the opportunity to do a great deal of travel in Asia, while an assignment to the UK for five years gave me a taste for travel in Europe. My last assignment, to Germany, gave me many more chances to travel around Europe, and in fact, led to the decision to stay in Europe after retirement. The fall of Communism opened the gates to travel to the East, where I added the former German Democratic Republic, The Czech and Slovak Republics, and Hungary to the list of Western countries that I have visited. I have not forgotten my roots in the US, making about 2 to 3 trips a year to see my family all over the US.

My wife is an organic gardener so I am learning something about that these days. However, I am only given heavy work, like mowing the ½ acre of lawn, taking down and dismembering trees, and hacking garden waste. I also get to do the shopping now and again.

Recently I started taking private lessons in speaking Irish. I did the same when I arrived in Germany and got a reasonable competence in the language, but I must say, Irish is another kettle of fish.

What I do most of the time is work on my computer and spend time on the Internet. I have friends all over the world, and we enjoy voice chats using software that we have in common. I even have a camera so I can be seen by my friends and can see them when they use their cameras. I have met seven of these friends in person over the past few years.

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Email: rwaldman@faculty.ed.umuc.edu