Last week I was away on business.

Starting on Monday my iPhone 6 started to present battery issues: rapid power drain, and, for unknown reasons, the battery indicator would read “100%” all day even as it approached zero charge.

It was intermittent, too. That only made it even more mysterious. I had no clear way of assessing if it was related to the previous week’s news that the iOS 10.3.2 update had a brutal battery-killing glitch, or if my 2 year old iPhone’s battery was simply reaching End Of Life.

I have an outboard battery for my phone, but it was draining that one just as quickly.

Believe me, when you have to catch a flight and your boarding pass is an e-pass in your Apple Wallet on your phone, wondering if your phone will croak before you are able to board is anxiety-inducing.

All that time last week I briefly hoped that my phone would limp it’s way over the finish line: September’s new iPhone launch.
Alas, it was not to be.

Saturday morning, my phone survived just long enough for my alarm to wake me, and then it died.
Completely.

In the interval between 5am and when the Apple Store opened a 10am I was completely cut off from the world.

In fact when they checked me in and asked if I wanted a text or email reminder for my Genius Bar appointment I just laughed and said “Too bad I can’t receive it without a phone.”

Anyway, long story short, I only had twenty minutes to wait. And the tech confirmed what I suspected: My phone was D-E-D, dead.

Thankfully, I was able to get a refurb.

And, even more thankfully, for the first time in my life the iCloud backup restore ACTUALLY WORKED, restoring my replacing phone back to everything
I had up to Friday night.

And, the 90 day warranty on the refurb will take me through until the new launch.

So I feel complete again.