Seems like I answered this question earlier this week when I wrote about the five favorite things to do for fun. Yes, yes. I did. I’ll write instead about how I once spent and might once again spend my leisure time.
When I was a boy, I played the piano for a couple of hours every day. We had a full-sized upright piano in our finished basement. It had a good sound, mostly. The lowest few keys were a bit dull, but they weren’t used much. An older man came over to tune the piano a couple of times a year. He replaced the ivories with plastic when they cracked.
My older sisters married guys who were in a rock band on their first tries at married life. One of the young men played drums, the other played keyboards. I purchased a rundown electric keyboard from the latter guy and gave popular music a shot. This began the end of my classical piano practice and, ultimately, I stopped playing the piano for several years.
A few years after college, I bought a studio piano. I spent a couple of years doing exercise drills and learning a few moderately difficult pieces. I’m not sure what happened to that piano. It’s probably still in Montreal. A lot of things got left behind when I returned to the US twenty-four years ago: most of my belongings, including my car. There’s a story there. A trying time.
About 15 years ago, while living in Georgia, I bought the keyboard in the photo. For a while, I played at night. The sound kept my wife awake so I purchased headphones. The clicking of the keys still kept her awake, so I stopped making what little progress I’d made. I used it as a computer desk for a while. It’s been mostly silent for a long time.
Sometimes I think about playing again. It might be a good leisure activity, another way to exercise my mind.
My wife has noise canceling earbuds now.
I’ll write about gardening another time.
There’s time.
A Different Way 
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