It’s a cat sanctuary, alright. Twin A told me she was able to speak with one of our neighbors when we were looking for Oyen when he went missing. She wanted to go look for him in another neighbor’s yard because that’s where my mom’s maid last saw Oyen. Twin A said we heard meows from that part so Oyen could be there. The neighbor said it’s hard to decipher which one could be Oyen since they have a sort of cat sanctuary there.

We never got back Oyen after he disappeared for the second time. He sneaked out of my mom’s garden and jumped into the neighbor’s yard. Hopefully, he got adopted or he is now with that cat sanctuary.

Now my curiosity is getting the better of me. I want to talk to our neighbors to see for myself how this giant catio looks like from the inside.

Meanwhile, the felled coconut tree trunk is still there, lodged between the branches of my pomelo tree.

Have to hire a tree/wood cutter to clear this one.

School got suspended today after two earthquakes shook the socks out of the school administration and the local government unit. Phivolcs said it was tectonic in origin, with the epicenter at Jomalig town in Quezon Province. The reports are inconsistent when it came to magnitude. Some earlier reports say it’s 5.3 then 5.6. The second tremor was around 5 then some reported it’s 4.9.

But when I was still with local media, the first thing we editors consult is the USGS earthquake tracker so that’s what I follow nowadays for instantaneous report. It says 5 and then 5.3 , while Phivolcs recorded them at 5.3 and 4.9. There were smaller quakes of magnitude 2 to 3.2.

I was still asleep when the two quakes happened. I was just awakened by the emergency alert by NDRRMC on my phone. I was just drifting off to sleep again when I felt the second quake.

I was a bit annoyed that they suspended classes just because of this. When I was still in elementary and high school, classes only got suspended at magnitude 6 and above.

But then authorities didn’t know immediately what’s the origin of the quake. Of course the first thing that they will think is it’s volcanic since we are technically at the foot of a sleeping volcano. Plus we’re surrounded by smaller volcanoes.

Ok I forgive them.

Then I realized how nonchalant I am, up to the point of callousness, when it comes to earthquakes. I always take it for granted because it happens frequently. “It’s normal, no need to panic,” is my first thought.

However, I shouldn’t behave like this. As I said above, we live at the foot of a volcano. I lived to see how Pinatubo blew up—and it was mistakenly described once as an inactive volcano. As my mom said, there are no extinct volcanoes in the Philippines—they’re just inactive. Anytime they can blow up as magma shifts.

And 😱 Phivolcs identified our mountain as a “potentially active” volcano and not just plain “inactive.”

I should prepare like the Japanese. You know, they have their earthquake emergency bags.