Don't scare me like that

I am on the MSNBC news alert thingee for my email. So, I get news alerts when something big (and sometimes not so big like a B list celeb dying, but that is another story) happens.

I get this one this morning as I open up my email:
Red Cross estimates 200 people dead, 1,500 missing in landslide in Philippines

No big deal you say. Well, my father-in-law is laid up in the hospital in Manila after having surgery to amputate some of his big toe. Apparently he is diabetic and hasn't known it and he has had a wound on this toe for around a year now. After a few surgeries and lots of treatment, it developed gangrene and had to go. But, I digress.

I go look at the dateline on the story and it says MANILA and I'm frantically dialing the wrong number for my mother-in-law to try to find out what she knows. I keep dialing the wrong number. Take some deep breaths and go look at where, precisely, the landslide occurred. After typing with some difficulty, I find the story and discover the landslide is on an island more than 400 miles from Manila.

*insert deep relief sigh here*

All I could think is that I want to be armed with all information before I call Army of Dad and tell him what has happened. It is still tragic for those people who are dead or who lost everything, but my little piece of the world is safe from what I can tell. Selfish, yes. Human, yes, too.