Cash for Clunkers - Would you take advantage of it? Monday, July 27, 2009

I'm sure you've heard about it by now. It seems that every time I turn on the radio or the television (I've even seen it advertised on some websites) I'm bombarded with "cash for clunkers" offers. It just passed through our government, and is EVERYWHERE!

I'd heard rumblings about this government incentive to rid the roads of gas-guzzling rides for the past couple of months, but there was no official announcement until just recently. It turns out that the start date for this program was on July 1 and it will be in effect until November 1 or until the $1 billion set aside for this program runs out (whichever comes first).
In short, the Cash for Clunkers (officially "Car Allowance Rebate System" or CARS) program is a government stimulus package that essentially provides a rebate to any person trading in a car that gets a combined (hwy and city) fuel economy of 18 mpg or less. The rebate amount you get depends on how many miles per gallon the new car that you buy gets compared to your old "clunker". Buying a car that gets more than 4, but less than 10 mpg more than the car you're trading in yeilds a $3,500 rebate. Should your new car have a combined fuel economy of 10 mpg or more than the car you're trading in, you will receive a rebate of $4,500.

There are some restrictions, but cars.gov does a great job of answering a bunch of questions you may have. One caveat is that this only works with new car purchases. There are also some limitations with particular work trucks. I encourage you to do your own research if you think this a good idea.

Now that all of the technical stuff is out of the way, I get to the point of this blog post. Should we trade in The Love Boat for a couple grand towards a new car? More specifically, a black 2009 Honda Fit Sport with a manual transmission, some flashy rims and a thumpin' stereo? Raise your hand if you're ridden with me lately and have heard the "doo-doo bass".
I did the math and found out that our trusty old van gets 18 mpg (even the original listing when the car debuted says 18 mpg, combined). The Fit gets an average of 31 mpg. That's roughly a 55% increase in fuel economy. (31 / (18 - 1) = % difference) So, if we currently spend $150/mo. on gas for the van (we like to travel), then I could assume that we'd be spending $82.5/month on gas. Wait...is that right? Somebody help me with the math. I manage projects for a living now. My math skills have gone out the window. Assuming that's correct, we'd be saving $67.5/month...minus the monthly cost to actually pay for the car.

And therein lies our dilemma. All the numbers out on the table and we're probably looking at around $100/month to own a spankin' new Honda Fit Sport (and helping out the environment that much more). Oh yeah, the cool thing about the "cash for clunkers" program is that the car you trade in MUST be sent to a scrap yard and "...be crushed or shredded so that it will not be resold for use in the United States or elsewhere as an automobile." Kinda hard to stomach the thought of that happening to the van, but it is nice to know that we were the last ones to drive it and that the terrible emissions from that car will cease upon selling it.

So, with all of that said, I'm asking for your help and your opinion. What should we do? If you were in our situation, with a van worth (maybe) $1,000 and over 260,000 miles, would you pull the trigger on the new car and take advantage of this rebate? Whatever your answer, tell me why you think what you do.

Comments From Garrison Keillor... Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Garrison Keillor's comments on Obama's election...

Be happy, dear hearts, and allow yourselves
a few more weeks of quiet exultation.
It isn't gloating, it's satisfaction at a job well done.
He was a superb candidate, serious, professorial
but with a flashing grin and a buoyancy that comes
from working out in the gym every morning.

He spoke in a genuine voice, not senatorial at all.
He relished campaigning. He accepted adulation gracefully.
He brandished his sword against his opponents
without mocking or belittling them.
He was elegant, unaffected, utterly American,
and now (Wow) suddenly America is cool.
Chicago is cool. Chicago !!!

We threw the dice and we won the jackpot
and elected a black guy with a Harvard degree,
the middle name Hussein and a sense of humor.
He said, "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac,
and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher."
The French junior minister for human rights said,
"On this morning, we all want to be American
so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding
before our eyes." When was the last time you heard
someone from France say they wanted to be American
and take a bite of something of ours?
Ponder that for a moment.

The world expects us to elect pompous yahoos,
and instead we have us a 47-year-old prince
from the prairie who cheerfully ran the race, and
when his opponents threw sand at him,
he just smiled back. He'll be the first president in history
to look really good making a jump shot.
He loves his classy wife and his sweet little daughters.
At the same time, he knows pop music,
American lit and constitutional law.
I just can't imagine anybody cooler.

It feels good to be cool, and all of us can share in that,
even sour old right-wingers and embittered blottoheads.
Next time you fly to Heathrow and hand your passport
to the man with the badge, he's going to see
" United States of America " and look up and grin.
Even if you worship in the church of Fox ,
everyone you meet overseas is going to ask you about Obama,
and you may as well say you voted for him because,
my friends, he is your line of credit over there.
No need anymore to try to look Canadian.

_____________________________________________

Mr. Keillor is great! To bad I couldn't find a clip of him saying this so you could just hit a "play" button and listen to his captivating voice. Unabashedly, I admit to looking forward to his variety radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, each weekend on NPR. I recently read a funny description of the mysterious appeal of Garrison Keillor, by Sam Anderson. Anderson describes Keillor's weekly News From Lake Wobegon: "Keillor delivers the news in a kind of whispery trance. When he speaks, blood pressures drop across the country, wild horses accept the saddle, family dogs that have been hanging on at the end of chronic illnesses close their eyes and drift away". Ha ha! Perfect description.

The Last of 2008 Thursday, January 15, 2009

Some of my favorite things about 2008:

1. New community and involvement with Christ Community Church
2. Our travels in EUROPE
3. Rootclip officially launched, and was featured in the Traverse City Film Festival
4. I officially started Grad School full-time, working toward my Nurse Practitioner Degree
5. Ran my 1st 1/2 Marathon
6. President-elect Barack Obama - hopeful future for our country
7. Many of our friends brought new little lives into this world in '08, plus a few via adoption!
8. Erik and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary

I'm sure there are many, many more awesome and amazing things that God allowed me to experience in 2008, but these were just the highlights.

The last few weeks of December were filled with visits from friends and family - much laughter and love all around. Here's a link to our photos chronicling all of the fun :)

Election Reflections Wednesday, November 05, 2008

It's been extremely difficult for me to concentrate on school work these past few days. I've been on the edge of my seat, mesmerized by the most important election in our lifetime. For example, this morning, I got up at 8am (despite not going to bed until 2am) and had high aspirations for getting some good studying done. In actuality, I have watched a few morning shows and scoured the internet in pursuit of the different reactions of Americans across the country as we woke up this morning to a new President-elect. Barack Obama! I must confess, I had tears in my eyes as I watched his speech last night.

A few interesting facts I learned this morning; despite the majority of the country going "blue" in this election, the state of Tennessee actually voted even more "red" than it did in 2004. Here's a local newstory about the phenomenon - wbir.com. I think Erik and I have definitely felt that we were in the minority here, especially in East Tennessee, but when you look at that electoral map, county by county, it's pretty astonishing to see how little blue there is. I guess I didn't realize it, because there were pockets of Obama supporters, especially in the urban areas. So, what caused our state to become even more polarized from the rest of the country? Perhaps many people felt that voting was a lost cause, as Tennessee had been considered a lock for McCain from the beginning. The voter turnout, state-wide, was down by about 125,000 this year. Who knows. The important thing is that our country as a whole is moving on toward better days.

Regardless of how you voted, I think we can all be proud of the fact that we have elected an African American into the highest office in our country. I spent some time in prayer this morning for Mr. Obama as he takes on the challenge of a lifetime. I am going to commit to continue praying for our leaders (something I never have really done). I will continue praying that God will become more real to those who don't know Him, and that our country will come together for a more peaceful and united United States of America. Even more specifically, here is a GREAT pledge of prayer and accountability from Sojourners.

Love it... Monday, October 06, 2008

Side note: Hope everyone is registered to vote! It's the last day to register in Tennessee...go do it NOW!

Politics, Theology and The Daily Show Thursday, September 04, 2008

Interesting bit on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart about how some GOP pundits are changing their stories since Sarah Palin has come onto the scene.

I'm saying this to myself as much as all of you, please think about where you stand on the issues at hand in this election and don't assume that any specific news channel or political talking head has all of the facts. I'm often tempted to repeat what I hear somebody on the television/radio saying about politics because it think its clever or interesting, but often times, I haven't done all of my research and come off just being a mockingbird who doesn't know what he's really talking about.

For this election, I'm going to overlay each issue with my theologies and see how they stack up against what I believe about God, His people and the world in which He has allowed us to live and serve Him. I hope that you will do the same and not just ride the coattails of any specific party without knowing where they're going.

Wow, who knew you could mix faith and politics in one blog post?!

-Erik