Those of you who have been reading this blog forever will remember the famous Saga of the Security Room, from way back when the Iraq War was no more than a twinkle in George W. Bush’s eye.

You can read all about it here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, etc, etc, etc. I think you’ve got the picture by now.

So now it’s Saga of the Security Room - Revisited (with a Vengeance).

Time to empty the communal security room on our floor again. Time to get it ready for use. Only guess what? This time it is us who are the security room villains.

Since the last war (is it only three and a half years ago?) we have purchased not one, not two, but four bikes. The other inhabitants of the floor also have between two to three bikes to a family. And guess where we all store them?

So now we’ve been ordered to remove them. Immediately.

The official option is to put them in the air raid shelter downstairs, which is a bit inconvenient. We’ve decided we prefer to move them into the apartment. One each in the girls’ rooms and two at the entrance of the apartment.

The Security Room still has stuff in it, but it’s not ours. And somehow we’re not worried. The girls have clear instructions to go down to the air raid shelter if there is a siren and we parents are not at home. We have also given them clear instructions what to do if they’re not at home and there is a siren.

This time around I am curiously calm. As I tell the girls, they are still far more likely to get run over by a bus (and they’re to be careful when they cross the road!).

Eldest is not amused by the whole thing. She’s not at all happy at the prospect of having to abandon Shoosha in the apartment, while she ’saves herself’. She thinks we’re horrid and heartless.

R.T. will readily explain to you why taking Shoosha down to the air raid shelter is not a serious option. The neighbors would soon flee back to the safety of their apartments

Of course, besides the preparations and the ‘little talks’ with the girls, it’s business as usual. Eldest slept at a friend’s apartment last night. Youngest is going to her Japanese Summer School as scheduled and getting the bus back. This week she’s got a dance perfomance too, and she’s busy with the rehearsals. Summer activities continue unfettered. Up yours, Nasrallah.

By the way, a relative was shopping in the Haifa area this morning, when a katyusha or missile (something very loud, anyway) dropped onto the place next door.