Under Siege

This Friday and Saturday Zagreb will literally be under siege. As you've probably heard on your local news, Air Force One (yes, the one from your neck of the woods) will be landing at Zagreb airport some time this Friday afternoon and will be leaving some time Saturday. That's all great and wonderful. George and Laura will tour the city, eat local food, talk to our president and make some speeches. All in all that would be fine four us regular people if it weren't for the whole security thing. Zagreb sewer holes are being welded shut throughout the part of the city that Bush will go through for security reasons. On Friday, schools and daycares are closing way early causing great inconveniences to parents who will have to beg their employers to take off work early. Roads and parking lots will be closed off to traffic as needed without much advance notice, and cars will be towed en masse from legal parking spaces if they are deemed to be a security threat. It's all top secret. Good luck to those who live near by. Basically, we've all been advised to stay home, close the shutters (!?!?) and keep quiet so Bush and his entourage of several thousand people (did you know that it took that many support staff for him to travel) can enjoy the city all to themselves. So we'll change plans and stay home. I suppose we'd live with that too (as if we have a choice), but so it just happens that Saturday Chris and I celebrate (or would like to celebrate) our 11th wedding anniversary. Since we're no celebrities and aren't of any political importance, our celebration can't stand up to the disarray that one simple two-day-visit will cause the city. I suppose meeting the president is out of question...