A Pleasant way to Spend a Rainy Day

Mr Hippo is happy to report that he is spending the day attending to a long neglected task, to wit: patching the dozen or so size 34 jeans that he kept with hope against hope that he would someday once again be able to fit in.


Mr Hippo must confess that while in many ways he is totally unique and exceptional, in one regard he shares a trait with the common herd, namely the gradual increase in weight and girth over time.


Mr Hippo is a little embarrassed to admit that due to a lack of diligence on his part, he gradually increased his weight from his early 20's from 170 pounds (30 inch waist) to a shockingly unheard of weight of 230 pounds, and that his 36 inch wast jeans were even starting to get a bit snug around the middle.


This made for one very unhappy hippo, since instead of a slim trim fit hippo he was rapidly turning into what would have been in in is younger days an object of derision and contempt, a fat, lazy middle aged slob.


Mr Hippo was offered an excellent opportunity to lose a considerable amount of weight in his early 40's when he dropped 30 pounds from the then unbelievable weight of 210 pounds to a very reasonable 180.


However, Mr Hippo never wishes to be forced to use that weight loss plan again, so he needed some other strategy.


Mr Hippos weight loss dream came true when in May he found employment at a second shift position. This allowed the implementation of the only two weight loss factors that really work, namely, getting more exercise AND eating less.


Prior to his starting work, Mr Hippo's evening activities, in true Hippo fashion consisted of grazing from the fridge and cupboards while watching Tee Vee or playing on the computer.


Mr Hippos new job took care of his eating habits, and since his new job was moderately physical, it provided the needed stimulus to boost his metabolism and burn off the pounds.


Mr Hippo is currently sitting at 10 pounds higher than the weight he swore he would never be, and while somewhat satisfied, realizes that there is still room for improvement.


However, that brings us to Mr Hippo's current dilemma, namely patching all those jeans that he kept hoping against hop that he would some day fit into.


While it is true that Mr Hippo can and does buy new jeans, he likes to wear them until they are literally rags falling off of him. It harkens back to his younger days when ripped, faded and patched jeans were all the rage.


Mr Hippo has never been one to discard a fad just because it has gone out of styles, so he still wears his jeans the way he always has liked them, shall he say well broken in.


Mr Hippo hopes that his continued weight loss program will soon render all his newly revised 34 jeans too big, but then he WILL have to buy new ones because all of his 32's have long since been disposed of.


And those now too big 36's? Well, Mr Hippo is above all else a sensible practical hippo, so those have been relegated to a storage tub in the garage, in the extremely remote chance that Mr Hippo falls back into his bad old ways of eating and exercising.