It’s a total bitch to set, it’s wildly inaccurate, goes off whenever it wants to, and in general is about 99.99999% useless.
But boy, let me tell you… When it DOES decide to go off, it’s effective as all get out.
This morning’s epicenter was only about 13 miles from our house, so we got a pretty good jolt.
What’s really bizarre is that I heard it coming before I felt it and before the alarms went off on the phone and Apple watches. (Being so close to the epicenter, the emergency alert and the shaking arrived pretty much simultaneously, leading to the inevitable “NO SHIT, SHERLOCK!” screams of terror.) It sounded to me a lot like a very low flying helicopter. We get helicopters screaminging over all the time (we’re at the very top of a decent-sized hill) and it sounded like a police or fire/rescue helicopter going like a bat out of Hell. A local brush fire starting up and there’s a water drop incoming? Someone fall and break their leg (again?!) over on Castle Peak? Another police chase on the freeway and the news helicopters are racing to intercept?
Nope. About three seconds later the first jolt hit, the windows rattled, the dresser drawers threatened to dump their content, and the local electronics started wailing their warnings.
That’s okay, I wasn’t going to sleep in later anyway.
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 