The adventures of Finn and more…
HI Everyone, it has been over two months now that we have had Finn the dog, and how he has changed. Finn used to be a wound up spring, who exhibited bad behaviors and refused to calm down. When we first got him it took three walks a day to partially calm him down, and even after all of that walking he would still run around the house crazy and puppyish. Two months later Finn is a confident, relaxed and calm dog. He survives on two walks a day now and is happy and content. In the evenings after his second walk he is calm and tired and often lays at my feet content. During the day when Lorraine and I are at work, Finn lays on the bed and sleeps and waits patiently for our return. The change is almost night and day. Lorraine and I are very happy with his progress at home. Finn still has issues with strangers and we are working on socializing him more so that he does not get so uptight and bent out of shape when strangers come into our bubble. Alas this one issue will take some serious time to correct.
One area that Finn has excelled at is swimming. Two months ago Finn was scared of the water only going to the edge to drink and that was it. Over the last two months I have gently showed Finn that he is a water dog and he now jumps into the water with gleeful abandonment and has mastered how to swim and fetch in the water. It is truly an amazing thing to watch, and it makes my heart very happy that he has discovered who he is as a dog.
Another thing that Finn is discovering is that he is a bird dog, and with that he is honing his skills of romping through tall grass and looking for an item to fetch. At the dog park there are fields of tall grass that I throw sticks into for Finn to retrieve, again it is very entertaining to watch Finn bounce around in the tall grass and eventually find the stick. It is when he is romping through the grass that you understand where the word “Springer” in his name came from.
Finn has brought a whole new dimension to our lives and our family, and both Lorraine and I are very happy to call him our dog and relish in the fact that Finn has found his forever home. Even Annie is warming up to Finn, and often wonders over to Finn and gives him a small kiss on the snout; and Finn’s jealousy is slowly diminishing, though not totally gone yet.
On another front, I have been servicing the Motorhome this year paying attention to critical systems and getting things like the brakes looked after. It has been expensive so far, costing $2,300.00 at Ford to redo the brakes and perform some fluid flushes and service the transmission. Ouch! That is not the half of it too… Yesterday I took the RV in to get a wheel alignment, in an attempt to correct some drifting I have been experiencing this year while driving. Thinking that this would be a quick and dirty fix with minimal cost…Well I was wrong! After a preliminary inspection, Kal Tire called me and told me some very bad news. Apparently my front end needs to be replaced. The tech says that my upper and lower ball joints are shot and also my tire rods and bushings need replacements, and my steering stabilizer was installed incorrectly. Boy what a surprise that was. I had the Ball joints replaced just over two years ago so my big question is why they have failed so soon! I can understand the tie rods and bushings but not the ball joints, that one causes me great concern. Now the shop wants to charge me $2,400.00 to repair my front end, and unfortunately I do not see a way out on this one. This is safety and it needs to be looked at and dealt with, especially before I hit any mountain passes. My only concern is the Ball joints, they really should not have failed in just over two years especially with how much the RV has been driven over the past two years. It seems to me that this failure is very premature. So I am now haggling with Kal Tire over the expense of replacing these joints, and I am trying to get them replaced as a warranty item, but I am not too confident that this will happen. On a positive note the brakes work really well now! Ha! Ha! Small miracles.
With the end of July in our sights and August on the horizon the countdown to our big summer holiday begins. As of Saturday we will have 15 days until Lorraine and I are on Holidays for just over three weeks, and 20 days until we leave for the West coast and Campbell River. To say we are excited is an understatement. Five months ago it looked like the summer travel season was going to be cancelled. Though Covid is always on our minds and we are a bit worried about attending a wedding event that appears like it is going to be a big shing ding. My Brother never does anything half Assed, so I expect that his wedding will be no different and everyone and anyone will be attending. Both Lorraine and I will attend the ceremony but may bow out of the party and instead retire to our RV to wait it out if the party is too big for our comfort level. Certainly we have masks, but they are not a guarantee that you are protected, and I imagine that social distancing will be minimal amongst a bunch of happy and tipsy people. I guess time will tell.
Well that is about it for now, till next time…
Happy Trials,
The Glampurs
The dog park at 5:30am