iWait...

No, it is not the newest Apple device - it is what happens when you go to the Apple Store for a repair, without an advance appointment.

Not like I didn't TRY to get a service appointment with one of the "geniuses."  A couple days ago, my iPhone screen started coming apart from the body of the phone.  Interestingly enough, this is the only phone we ever bought an extended covers-everything warranty for.  (Yes, I ended that sentence with a preposition.)  The warranty (2 years) expires next month.

If you call the Apple Store direct, you get into their: "Press this button for this; press this button for that; press this button and wait a long, long time."  It doesn't matter which number you press: you will get transferred to someplace far, far away.  I found out later, you cannot get through to the store.  I just wanted to get my name in the service cue.  Oh, they have appointments - 4 or 5 days out.  I knew this phone was not going to hang in there much longer.  I also know they do accept walk-in service, but there will be a wait.  Really, I get that.

We walked on the 8:05 ferry, with the understanding that the rental car company would have someone there to take us from the ferry landing to their office in Anacortes.  I should mention that it is going to be rainy all day... no way were we going to take the scoots to the mainland, then ride another 80 miles or so in the rain.  Then back.  At highway speeds.

No sign of anyone from the rental company (Enterprise: "We'll pick you up!"  They say that in their TV commercials.)  They don't say they will be 45 minutes late.  And we are on a somewhat time-critical mission today... the later we get to the Apple Store, the longer we will have to wait.  When our buddy Thomas from Enterprise arrived, he could tell I was pissed; instead of taking us back to their one-man office in Anacortes, he took us to a parking lot about 1/2 a mile away and said, "You can take this car from here."  He had the paperwork done (since Joan called yesterday to book this), so all I had to do was: initial, initial, initial, sign here, sign there, initial... and initial.  And, we were off.  In the rain.  The car was peppy, reasonably comfortable, had a good heater, and good windshield wipers - it's all good.

We got to the Apple Store shortly after 11:15.  I was told they could get us in today, but it would be around 1:30.  "We will send you a text when your time is getting close."  We wandered the mall to do some shopping while we waited.  At 12:09, I got the next text: "Your service time is close - please return to the Apple Store now."

Not even close.  After waiting another 2 1/2 hours in the Apple Store, they cease looking like "geniuses."  One guy came over to us and asked if we have been helped.  "Apparently not..."  This brought the "guy with the red iPad"... apparently a status thing amongst geniuses... "We are running behind..."

I plead my case to him... he only looked semi-down his nose at me and said something into his headset.  A guy came out, looked at my phone and said, "Your battery is swollen."  He then disappeared.

Another guy came out and asked, "Are you the swollen battery?"

"No, I am the guy who has been waiting for over 3 1/2 hours because of the phone with the swollen battery."  He apologized... "Sorry, I didn't have your name."

"You can call me Swol - it's short for swollen battery.  What can you do for me?"

"We have to replace it."

"The battery?" I asked hopefully.

"No, the phone."

Had I known that, I could have backed up the phone while I was waiting.  No, we don't have wifi.  Our phone IS our wifi, so there is no way to back it up with our current situation.  He said, "The cloud should have all your phone data."

He was wrong.  Oh, my apps are on iTunes... but, you have to reload all of them, AND you have to try to remember all the sign-ins and passwords.  I really hate that shit.  Lost all my photos.  All my music... it is music transferred from CDs, not from iTunes.

On the bright side, they replace my phone for free.  Well, it cost me to get to the store, and I am pretty sure that annoying wait put some stress on my heart and central nervous system.  On the down side, I will be spending the next couple days trying to get this new phone as functional as my old one was.  Oh, and it didn't want to talk to my Apple Watch at all... I had to "wipe" the watch and start over with that.

Yeah, I know: first world problems.  I probably wouldn't have been pissed if they had just told me at the start of this wait how long it would really take, and what I could be doing for the backup during that wait.

We were hoping to get back to Anacortes in time for the 4:45 ferry.  We stopped for a very late lunch, since we were already past that time.  Picked up a couple things at the store.  Then, I dropped Joan at the ferry terminal, drove to the parking lot a half mile away, then walked back to the terminal in the rain.

The guy at the ferry terminal ticket office couldn't take our motorcycle multi-pass for a walk-on, because, "The Seattle office will think we are crazy here if I do that."  Stupid, perhaps?  We have done this before.  The lady with the scanner as you walk on the ferry had no problem taking our multi-pass.  In the rain.

When we got back to Friday Harbor, it was 9:30... and not raining.  We walked to the parking lot for the scoots.  The roads were plenty wet, so it has been raining.  The wind was gusty on the ride home, but we didn't get soaked.  About 10 minutes after I got the scoots in the trailer, the rain came down again with gusto.  My only good timing for the day.

I had a selfie that I took of Joan and me in the Apple Store; and a couple photos of the crowd in there... yeah, with the old phone... they are gone.