Coup-quake!

Yes, another new word, and hyphenated at that!

On Tuesday of this week there was an earthquake here in the Philippines. Apparently it registered 5.4, though it didn't seem that different from the 3.somethings I experienced when I lived in Japan in 1996.

I was home.

The building swayed back and forth (or side-to-side, depending on which direction one was facing, I guess). Maybe it moved in a roundabout way, kind of like the rides at amusement parks that are always making people sick. I don't know. I don't care. Suffice it to say, like Carole King, I felt the earth move under my feet...or the wood floor, anyway.

Today was another of those rainy days (yesterday was beautiful, by the way) where you open the window, look outside, and say "bleh". Apparently it was also a good day for military coup plotters on trial for their 2003 coup attempt (including bombs planted in strategic shopping and hotel locations throughout Makati) to march out of the courthouse and into the streets demanding the resignation of President Arroyo. Apparently they had arms, and I don't mean the two that naturally hang from either side of most peoples shoulders. And they were in Makati.

Cancel any plans to go out towards the shopping areas today.

The first I heard of it was a phone call from Edson saying there were reports of another coup attempt. His officemates just shrugged their shoulders, as if to say "Gee, coup season already?"

Coups are, after all, the way in which each Philippine president ends their term. Too bad this hasn't been tried (or tried successfully....who knows, maybe it has been attempted) on Dubya.

I was about to get dressed to go get lunch. What does one wear to a coup?

Olive seemed out of the question!

Blue? No. Marines.

Black? No. Too K-9 unit.

Khaki? Still too military.

White? In the rain???

Uh, how about pink? Hmmmm....gotta go buy something orange or yellow or light green, but that'll have to wait for later, won't it?!

"Bleh."