Just so you all know, I am telling you right up front that in 2005 I will be buying and Escape HEV. I have it all figured out. <grin!>

See, Dave turns 16 and a half and inherits my Geo Tracker. I guess that's OK with me, since the tracker will be 15 going on 16 years old by then, and with probably close to 200k miles on it. If you're not up on the legal driving age, here in Massachusetts it's raised to be 17, as you have to be 17 before you can start driving even with a permit. However, the cutoff year is 1988, so anyone born on or before 1988 can still get a permit at 16 and a half. That counts Dave, but not many of his friends, so he will have a 6 month jump on them. Considering how he is quick to volunteer to back the cars in and out of the garage for me already, I can tell he won't be slow in taking the wheel if he can help it. As always, it will be up to dad to slow him down.

So why the Escape HEV? Because it's still an SUV type thing but also hybrid. Gas and electric. That gets over 40 miles per gallon in commuter traffic, which is where I would be doing most of my driving up and down the route 3 corridor to work. There are other hybrid-like things, but the Escape is the only TRUE hybrid, where you can drive 100% gas or 100% electric, and it also happens to be the only SUV type thing that will be available by 2005. All the others currently on the market or planning to be on the market by them will be death-trap tin cars, which are not hybrid. They have a gas engine that is electric assisted. So you run out of gas, you are stuck. But not with the Escape!

Of course, I am making some assumptions. While Ford has announced they are past the prototype phase and are gearing up for actual production, they haven't actually made one for me to even consider buying. Ford could change their mind, or become a wartime vendor and start making tanks (ya never know!) or even go out of business before then. I am also assuming they really sell them for the price they claim they will be, but they could suddenly go up! After all, no one has done this before and they may have made assumptions on the availability and cost of parts that will eventually be handed on to me the consumer.

I am also assuming that I am still alive, that I am living im Massachusetts, and that I still have a job. Further, that job will pay me enough that I have the disposable income to buy such a car, or at least be able to budget its costs into my monthly income. In two years, I might have been out of work for two years! I would hardly be in a financial position to afford such a thing.

And it goes on! What if I crash the Tracker between now and then, and it's beyond fixing? I may be forced to buy a car sooner than I thought, which means it won't be what I was planning on unless I am able to find some alternative until the Escape comes to market. What if the crash leaves me unable to drive? Hardly seems reasonable to buy a car you can't drive. Or what if I am working from home 100% of the time? Now it's an expensive toy.

So what can I really count on? Surely I can dream, I can plan, but to pin my hopes on some future that has so many conditions would be crazy. Yet people often do that. Does this sound familiar?

I'm busy working for (whatever, like an Escape) right now; once I have that I will be satisfied and start studying as I should.

I'm just a teenager(or young adult, or midway, or whatever!) and everyone knows you are expected to enjoy those years to the fullest.

When I am (insert any number here) years older, I will be more mature and ready to handle the responsibility of being a Christian.

There are trials in the church right now; when things calm down I will contribute more.

I don't know about your situation, but you shouldn't be waiting for anything but for Christ to come! And you ought to be busy being ready! By the way, Dave, when we get that Escape, the Tracker no longer parks in the garage. Assuming, of course, we still have a garage, we still have a Dave, etc...

Luke 12:15-21 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

1 Thessalonians 5:2-6 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

James 4:13-17 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.