A Whole Lotta Shakin'!

This morning I awoke because I felt my bed shaking beneath me. I felt the my mind's normally slow transition from slumber to wakefulness race ahead of my body's own responses. It began positing observation after observation, and drawing inferences: the rhythmic shaking of the bed, the odd rocking motion transferred to my body, the tapping of the blinds against the windows in the same rhythm.

Earthquake.

The clock said 3:15, and I remembered in the way that one of those strange useless bits of trivia force themselves into your consciousness that the clock was often 4 to 5 minutes ahead.

Then I realized that I was also praying. In the back of my mind, I caught the last words of a prayer that I suppose is my natural response to waking at this strange hour: "... world without end. Amen."

I checked with Manang Connie if she'd felt the earthquake. I tried to get back to sleep.

About an hour later, I did.

From the Philippine Star:

MANILA (AFP) - An earthquake registering 6.2 on the Richter scale shook the Philippine capital and surrounding cities Thursday but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, government agencies said.

The quake, with an epicenter off the coast of Batangas province, just 110 kilometers (68.2
miles) south of Manila, set objects swaying in the capital and the neighboring provinces of Bataan, Batangas, Pampanga and Zambales at about 3:10 am (1910 GMT).

The quake, which was tectonic in origin, is expected to have aftershocks, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.