Extra Terrestrial Imperative: Countdown 1 billion years

I just read a great article from an unusual source about the future prospects of the earth and how we can avoid our planet's demise from the life-cycle of the sun. An interesting angle is the use of a meteor to draw the Earth away from the sun as the sun expands... leads to a whole slew of interesting ideas among them the extrapolation of this form of celestial mechanics. Perhaps as the sun begins to decline (by first growing) we will decide to manipulate the sun itself, and not just our own orbit. Maybe we will even decide to dump Mercury into the sun for a little extra reaction mass? So many ideas, not enough time.