26/365: Mr. Toupe

On January first, 1998 Mr. Toupe made his debut. He shuffled once around the park, lapped multiple times by the new year's resolution crowd, who were frantically trying to get in shape before they lost the drive to actually carry it out in their brand new sports equipment.

That first day Mr. Toupe didn't have the right kind of clothing. Seems to me he was wearing a pair of slacks and a checkered shirt with a windbreaker. His heavy gut jiggled uncomfortably and he looked miserable. No one really thought he'd last all that long.

But he soon became a daily fixture in the park. He invested in a decent pair of shoes and he gradually worked up from a painful shuffle to a jog. The pounds melted off as the sweat poured from underneath his artificial hairpiece. And in the end, Mr. Toupe was a good thirty pounds lighter.

Congratulations, Mr. Toupe, for a job well done.