How I Turned A Scooter into a Piano

Several years ago, when we first moved to Seattle, I bought a scooter.  Sort of a Vespa type thing, but not a Vespa, a Honda Metro.  It was black and white.  Like a checker board.  Like a piano.

Here is what it looked like:

 Man, I loved it.  When we first moved here I worked in a produce warehouse where I spent half the time bagging kiwis, and the other half of the time interviewing pear and beef farmers-- true story, another blog post.  Tyler was in graduate school, and we lived in this funny/darling little studio apartment under the steps in the house on Woodlawn street.  We didn't have much money, and lived off of the free produce that I got from my job.  We would get to take home all of the leftover produce at the end of the week, so I would pop open the seat and fill 'er up with lettuce and parsnips.  It became a salad on wheels. 

My scooter was a cheap fun way to get from here to there, and it was part of a very special phase of life, and I loved it.  

Well, life moved along, we had a kid, and my poor  scooter became this sad abandoned pet who sat in the rain with a dead battery year-round, because riding a scooter with a baby is neither a safe nor sane idea.

Eventually, in preparation for our move to India, I decided it was best to sell it to someone who could appreciate it and ride it every day.  

I'm not going to lie, it was a very sad day for me.  

But what made it not-so-sad was that I told myself I would use my scooter money one day to buy something else that I've always wanted-- something part fun, part necessary, part completely indulgent--  

--a piano.  

My friends, I have been saving my scooter money for years, and finally about a month ago, I bought my piano.  It looks like this: 

It's been years since I've really played with any sort of obedience or dedication.  But I have been playing every night now, practicing my site-reading, playing through my grandfather's old lessons (also another blog post) and plunking out the chords of various Pete's Dragon tunes that Violet begs me to play. 

It's everything I hoped it would be.  It's brought this other-life-ness into our house.  It's thrilling.  Kind of like riding your scooter onto a ferryboat and then along an island road.  It's me, sitting with this machine, thinking only of the moment at hand; the air filled with beautiful noise.