BOHICA

It's been a long, busy week. No particular problem with that, but I'm still glad it's over.

Today will be lots of running to and fro (speaking of phrases we don't hear often, anymore). The girls gave my wife an auto-start for her new SUV, and today's the day we take it to the shop. Naturally, the shop's hours don't bear much resemblance to those available to a working person. So we do the two-car shuffle.

She's going to work early, and then will take her new hotness to the shop, where I'll meet her, and take her back to her office ... and then return to mine. When the work is done (in three hours? More? Who knows?) we'll reverse the process.

Mostly, it involves zigzagging back and forth across town. At least it won't be during lunch hour when there are more vehicles clogging the intersections, as hungry office-dwellers hope desperately that this time, they'll have time to do more than inhale their food. I hear "chewing" can be quite satisfactory... but I digress.

This week, the State legislature resumes the debate about our budget deficit. "The free ride is over" is a common statement, lately.

What does that mean? It means BOHICA. At the very least, we're going to see a sales tax (Alaska has none, at present). Meanwhile, the Governor is crowing about how he's increasing Medicare and several other programs.

The Anchorage school district says that it will deal with the projected shortfall in its own budget ... an annual occurrence, for those with short memories ... by "cutting jobs." Uh-huh, tell me another.

Yes, they're going to cut a half-dozen positions, while adding a dozen or more new ones. Only in the Land of Politics does a net 100 percent increase constitute a cut.

And up is down, war is peace, and costly is free.

BOHICA, indeed.