Penelope the Porcupine will sometimes declare, "Today is my birthday," even though she might have made the same claim just a few days before. She sometimes decides to have a birthday several days in a row and sometimes will go months between birthdays. This seems odd to me and somewhat unlikely, but I am not a porcupine, so who am I to question?
Oscar the Otter, on the other hand, has stopped having birthdays. "If I stop having birthdays I will not age and I will never grow old," he told me. I asked him why he thought that that was true. "I dreamed it," he answered. I tried to explain that dreams are not real but he interrupted me by saying, "Yes they are!" I asked him how he knew that dreams are real and he said, "Because I dreamed it. And if dreams are real and I learned that fact in a dream then dreams are real. You can not argue with my logic." After being friends with Oscar for several years, I've learned that it is sometimes better not to argue with him at all.
At any rate, Penelope woke up this morning and declared that today is her birthday. She then set about making herself a chocolate birthday cake with onions and tadpoles while Oscar and I filled some balloons with helium. When the cake finished baking, Oscar took the balloons to Penelope and we sang Happy Birthday to You for her. Unfortunately, Penelope accidentally backed into one of the balloons with her quills. The sound of the bursting balloon startled Oscar and he accidentally let go of the balloon strings and the balloons all floated off into the sky.
"Isn't that beautiful?" Penelope smiled as she watched the balloons float away. "This is the best birthday I've ever had!" Then she and Oscar ate the chocolate cake with onions and tadpoles while I turned and looked the other way.
And that is the end of the story of Penelope's birthday and the burst balloon.
Thanks for stopping by! It was nice to see you today and I hope to see you here again someday soon!
