Tomorrow will be the first day of fall, and while it feels normal to be itching from the high Ragweed pollen count, it feels a little weird to already be done with the 2019 New Mexico State Fair.

If I were still living in North Carolina, I would, no doubt, be racing to cram a month’s worth of crochet into the next two weeks. I would be writing short blog posts with lots of pictures, and detailing my efforts to finish (hopefully) on time.

There would be lots of late nights, early mornings, and cold cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with an occasional tuna sandwich thrown in for a change of pace.

Instead, his past Monday in-between lunch and a late afternoon appointment, I stopped by the New Mexico State Fairgrounds to pick up my entries to find that the purse I made had garnered a blue ribbon, as did my peace sign crochet soccer ball, while my cookie scarf got a red ribbon:

I had meant to go to the fair to see all of the entries, but we had tickets to a see a concert which had as its opening act, a rodeo. In an effort to avoid the parking crunch around the state fair itself, we went to one of the park and ride shuttle locations. It was a wonderful service, but we had not budgeted enough time, so when we arrived at the fairgrounds, we had to make a beeline for the building where the rodeo/concert was taking place.

To my sorrow, we hurried past the fried dough booth:

and the blow up Pikachu prize:

before we finally made it to the venue– which was just about as far away from where shuttle bus dropped us off as a person could be and still be at the fairgrounds. I was slightly annoyed to be running late, but whatever annoyance I might have felt was erased when I finally got to my seat and saw Whiplash the capuchin monkey riding his dog, Bogie.

Until I saw this little capuchin monkey living his life riding a dog and herding sheep, I didn’t know I needed him in my life. How this little guy became a rodeo monkey I don’t know, but he is good at his job, and also serves as a tremendous inspiration.

I don’t know that I have ever had to do anything so far outside my comfort zone as what this little monkey had to do to learn his trade, but I could not help but admire his tenacity and joi de vivre as he made his way around the arena herding sheep with his dog Bogie.

Whiplash honestly made me feel I could do anything, and it was that feeling of crochet invincibility that I tapped into this weekend as I worked on one of two new Day of the Dead yarn bombings I am working on.

As sunset approached on Saturday, I had almost most finished five of the sixteen double crochet panels I need:

Then today, working as diligently as possible, I completed three more of the panels, and the yarn bomb began to really take on a life of its own:

There is still plenty of work to be done, but I will move forward the only way possible: one stitch at a time.