processing centers, vision care. and barbara
I just had a Netflix-related epiphany this morning!
For several years now I've been annoyed with Netflix about something that I should not have been annoyed with them about. It's almost certainly the United States Postal Service's fault, not Netflix's.
Once was a time I could send a Netflix DVD returned to them in the mail one day, they would send me notice of their receiving it the next day, send me my next movie that same day, and I would receive that one day later. I'd get a new movie within three days, maximum, after having watched the previous one (bearing in mind the movie goes out in the mail typically the day after I watched it).
I got notice today that they received Mission: Impossible III. That went out in the mail not yesterday, but on Tuesday. Shobhit and I had watched it on Monday. Once was a time, I would have gotten that notice yesterday, and I'd have the new one in the mail today. Now I won't get it until tomorrow at the soonest. I wanted to watch Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation tonight, god damn it! I'm too busy tomorrow night so I won't be able to watch it now until Saturday. God damned postal service!
Anyway, these delays with Netflix discs is probably not as much their fault as I have long been assuming. It may be to an extent, since they clearly downplay their DVD delivery service when the money is in streaming and has been now for years, but I refuse to give up DVD delivery when only a select group of titles are available streaming at any given time. The Mission: Impossible franchise films, for instance -- currently only available on disc. (I could technically stream them via Amazon Prime Video, except in that case only if I subscribe through "Starz" at an additional premium -- another inconveniently tiered system.)
What I never thought to connect until this morning are the delays of Netflix discs and how long any other mail I send out takes to get to anyone -- as in, the birthday cards I make and send every year to all three of my parents (Mom, Dad, Sherri). Once upon a time my cards reliably arrived in Olympia only one day after I mailed them out. Now it takes a minimum of two days. I kept forgetting about this but my cousin Jennifer, who works for the post office in Shelton, recently reminded me: "because they closed a bunch of sorting plants down." That was a while ago now, apparently -- like, 2012. Jennifer then added, "now mail from here [Shelton] and Olympia has to go to Tacoma to be sorted. Before it only had to go to Olympia." Annoying! But money-saving, presumably. The postal service is, after all, nearly $16 billion in debt, which is insane.
It looks like Jennifer was slightly mistaken, though. At least as of 2012, according to this page at the USPS's own website, all mail processing operations in Tacoma, Everett and Olympia moved here to Seattle. On the other hand, maybe that has since changed, because according to this Wikipedia page about it, I guess a plant in Tacoma serves all ZIP Codes starting with 983-985. That would include Dad and Sherri's ZIP Code in Olympia.
I get the feeling the processing plant a piece of mail goes to is the one serving the area the mail is going to, rather than from. If we still have a processing plant here in Seattle, I wonder if that means I still get mail from Olympia in just one day? I should more attention to this the next time I get a card in the mail. The other direction, though -- my mail to Olympia has to make a pit stop for sorting in Tacoma, which delays it at least a day. So, whereas I used to be able to send Dad and Sherri their birthday cards, Mother's Day cards and Father's Day cards just one day prior to when I wanted them to receive it, I now have to send it two days before.
Anyway, this must be also what's going on with an extra day it takes for my returning Netflix DVDs to make it back to them. And what I just mentioned about Seattle's sorting plant would make it make sense that it takes a day shorter for their discs to get to me. Not that it does me any good this week. But, oh well; Mission: Impossible - Fallout doesn't come out until July 27 anyway, and there's only one more of the previous films to watch before that. Given that I've heard Fallout is the first of these movies to be very much a continuation of the previous installment -- more of a sequel than a stand-alone entry like all the other films -- it kind of makes sense for Rogue Nation to be seen a little closer to it anyway. We've got plenty of time.
Mind you, I'm still on the 2-discs-at-a-time plan. Honestly by and large I'd even be fine with a 1-disc-at-a-time plan, except I like having this option for the semi-regular times I do double features. In any case, Shobhit and I watched Ghost Protocol last night. But that one only goes back out in the mail today, so Netflix won't receive that at least until Saturday. They send out a new one that day, and I don't get the next one in my queue after that one until Monday. (That'll be Ant-Man.)
It was just past 10:00 by the time we finished Ghost Protocol, which is two hours and 13 minutes long and we stopped it several times.
Before that, though, I rode home with Shobhit from Northgate after having my biannual eye exam at LensCrafters at Northgate Mall. I totally forgot they charge $55 just for the "contact lens fitting" (talk about a racket) plus a $20 copay -- which is exactly what I paid in 2016. The key difference now, though, is that they said Aetna told them I only have $16 as a balance for my hardware benefit, and it should be $200. I can find no record of having to pay for the contact lenses I got in 2016, and when we called the lady at the LensCrafters in Bellevue who had been so incredibly helpful to us in December, they could find no logic behind this either. And this woman, who is clearly leading by example when it comes to customer service, said she's not working today but when she comes back tomorrow she will call both the Northgate store tomorrow and Aetna to figure out what the deal is, and get back to me.
Shobhit said that although it's much further out of the way, he prefers the Bellevue store over the Northgate one, and I think I'm convinced now too. I just put a note in my Google Calendar to remind me that the next time I get an eye exam, I should do it at LensCrafters in Bellevue -- in July 2020. I'll include a link to this blog post to job my memory as to the details.
To be fair, the lady who processed me was perfectly nice at the Northgate store, and the eye doctor himself was pleasant enough as well. But, the customer service excellence at the Bellevue store is beyond the pale. They've now cemented my loyalty. And loyalty from Matthew is nothing to scoff at!
We're actually about 80% of the way toward the same number of years since Barbara moved back to Virginia as she lived in Seattle, which was between 2000 and 2010. I've seen her very few times since; the last time I saw her in person was 2011, when we flew her out here for my Birth Week that year. I had been thinking it was when Shobhit and I took a day trip from New York to Washington D.C., but that one was actually October 2010. My last time visiting with her was only six months after that, though, and even then was still seven years ago. God, time goes by fast.
Anyway. Beth had some professional family photos taken back in May. When she posted one of herself with her shockingly grown up kids the very next day, I had to share my compliments in the comments, as it was a truly fantastic photo. And Beth replied, "wait till you see the ones with Mamma. Yes, she sat for photos! And she looks amazing."
Well, she finally texted them to me this morning. They were so great, and I know Sherri in particular has really missed Barbara all this time, I had to send them to her as well. So this morning I also uploaded them from my phone to Flickr, should you like to see the as well. Barbara is almost certainly only smiling with her mouth closed because of her long history of terrible teeth, but the photographer clearly knew what she was doing. Beth is right: they are amazing pictures, and honestly Barbara doesn't look like she's aged a day in those photos.
Shobhit and I really need to find a way to see her again soon. I'd love to fly her out here again sometime, although I would also love to visit Washington, D.C. again. I've been there twice, once in 2000 and once in 2010. I guess if I want to hold that pattern I should go again in 2020!
[posted 12:16 pm]