The Hat

I've had many, many hats in my life. When I was in high school, I preferred to wear baseball hats to school. I had all sorts of hats, and not all of them were of teams I liked. I did have rules, though, as I would not wear a hat of a team I despised (you still won't catch me wearing any Packers or Yankees gear, for instance).

While I don't wear hats every day like I used to, I still have plenty of them around. Including old and dirty hats, hats that seem to be well past their sell-by date.

Like my old LB hat.

I mentioned in Sunday's post how I'd resurrected it. I don't exactly remember when I got it, as I've had at least three LB hats (which are for sale here at the LB Online Store). The most recent one I had, I've had since at least 2005, and I'm guessing it even goes back further.

Here's me wearing it in 2006:

don't let this guy talk you into drinking beer

I weighed in at a robust 262 in that picture, and I'd already dropped more than 40 pounds at that point.

Here's the same hat on the same-but-different-looking head about one year later.

feeling good in my LB hat

I was around 210 at this point, so about 20-25 pounds heavier than I am today. Wow. Unreal. I wasn't a runner in that picture as I hadn't quite yet contemplated taking up the sport, but I was getting close. To contemplating, not to actually running.

(oh yeah, bonus points if you can tell where this picture was taken... and double bonus points for the first picture)

Anyway, I'm not sure how it happened but that hat got dirty. Real dirty. It fell behind the couch and was lost in the abyss that is behind the couch. I'm not sure why I held on to it. I guess I knew that I would resurrect it.

It was actually difficult to bring back to life. Here's what I did. Try and stay with me.

1. Put in washer along with a load of darks.
2. Set aside to air dry.

Did I mention how I never used to actually wash my hats because I didn't like how they looked after a washing? That was the quickest way to ruin one of my old hats, to throw it in the washer.

Maybe these newer hats are different. Or maybe I just don't care much anymore about how hats look after they are washed. Regardless, I have my hat with me once more.

If I have one complaint, it is this: the hat says One Size Fits All, but I could use it just a little more snug on my head. However, I think the old LB stretched it out a little bit with his big dome.

Still, I can wear it and that's what matters.

from washer to 22-miler

I bet the guy in the first picture never thought he'd run 22 miles in that hat one day.

Oh, and by the way I'm not sure why my mouth is open like that. In fact, I didn't even realize it was open until I saw the picture, which is why I took another one, the one I used in Monday's post. I look like a fish, like a pink fish. I'm only sharing this picture here with you because I like you, blog reader. So don't get smart with me and my fish mouth.