things that go bump in the night

I live in earthquake country.

That sentence could have applied as readily to Salem as it does to Melaque.  Both sit on the not–so-comfortingly-named Ring of Fire that arcs around the Pacific Rim.  More like the Parabola of Fire.

Nature reminded me of that fact at 6:13 on Saturday morning.  I was in that not awake/not asleep state when something shook me over to the right wing of the equation.

A crack.  Like a piece of lath being snapped in the courtyard.  Followed by a couple seconds of movement.  Maybe what an ant would feel sitting on the top of a shaken jello mold.  A colorful Mexican jello mold, mind you.

And then it passed off into the distance across town -- with an arc of transformers shorting out in serium.

Quite a few of my neighbors are old enough – and have lived here long enough -- to remember the Big One in 1995.  The one that toppled Melaque’s sole resort-quality hotel.

They were the first into the street.  Deserting their beds for the perceived safety of our dirt roads.

This was not a large quake.  Only 4.1.  With the epicenter in the mountains just north of here.

I have been through larger quakes -- in Oregon, California, and Greece.  The other tremors I have felt here were about the same as Saturday morning’s movement (shake, rattle,and roll).

So, earthquakes are not on my list of things to be concerned about in Mexico -- even though, as I write this on Saturday night, we have just had another jolt: 5.1, this time.  Or, if they are on my list, it is just behind being eaten by piranha in my bath tub.

As one of my neighbors laughingly said.  What next?  Will it rain snakes?

That would be cool.