Swam 1000 meters this morning and it went okay. I finally gave in and bought a true swimming suit, my recreational suit wasn't conducive to swimming laps and I need all the help I can get. There's a book, Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier, that I've heard is really supposed to help you swim better with less effort. Lots of the triathlon sites recommend it and the author's web site. I found a copy of the book at Borders and spent a good 20 minutes deciding whether to buy it. I opted not to because I can't read about swimming technique, I need to see it and experience it. There are Total Immersion workshops offered in Houston at TriVantage and that may be a better use of my time.

. . .

Speaking of Borders Books, I love how you can search the local store inventory from the web. I'd rather go to Barnes and Noble to buy books because it's closer and I want to do my part to keep Amazon in check but Barnes and Noble doesn't let you search store inventory. I'm not going to call, it's too hard to find the number, talk to a real person, and wait for them to check only to find out they don't have it. Borders lets you check any local store and you can even have it held at the front desk so you can pop in and pay for it. Borders has offered this for years, why Barnes and Noble doesn't is a mystery (or if they do I can't find it on their site).

Forget pedestrians, forget running, forget corn syrup and Mad Cow. Will Netflix please figure out a way to ship me DVD's that aren't scratched? Once again I flop on the couch to watch a Netflix DVD only to discover that it's skipping or won't play at all. Maybe you'll get lucky and be able to clean it or maybe you'll clean it well enough so it only drives you crazy while it plays. Or, like tonight, it stops playing with about 3-4 minutes of the movie left! Yes, that's right, it stopped with an estimated 3 minutes left to go. By sheer luck the outcome of the pseudo-mystery (don't ask) was revealed, otherwise I'd be fit to be tied.

I like Netflix, their service is great, I get a DVD within a day, they'll ship a replacement DVD without waiting for the defective one to be returned, and they're battling those bastards at Wal-Mart. But dammit, great service and martyrdom doesn't make up for it. Figure out a way to verify the integrity of the DVD when it is returned so you'll stop shipping me defective ones. I know that this can be automated and I'll put money down that there's a process that can verify the disc itself by checksum or some similar method. And, with this process maybe you'll find the slobs who keep scratching them.

It's enough to drive you into the arms of the cable company . . .

Running was great today, six miles and the foot felt fine the entire time. Perfect weather, too—sunny, cool, and dry.

After the run I started talking with a runner I've seen before at Memorial Park but never met. He's a 56-year old semi-retired CPA who is serious about marathon training. He started running when he was 42 and has run somewhere around 40 marathons since with a personal best of 2:40-something at age 51. He had some good advice including a recommendation of his coach who's helped him improve his times. I'll have to soften Wifey up on the idea of a running coach.

I also had my foot examined today by an orthopedic surgeon (and two residents) at the Baylor Sports Medicine Institute. As I suspected, it's plantar fasciitis. I felt a bit foolish going in with the foot on the mend but as I explained to the doctor, the appointment was made when the foot was hurting.

But the real gem for today was what was handed to me on the way out of the doctor's office—a survey. That's right, this place wants to know what I thought of the wait time, the friendliness of the staff, the amount of face time with the doctor, would I recommend it, everything you typically provide feedback on but seldom get the chance to when it comes to the folks in the white coats.

Finally, an article from USA Today on the new Whole Foods next to its corporate headquarters in Austin. It's 80,000 square feet of good stuff. Thank goodness for Whole Foods.

Let's see, 5th day of the new year and I'm already dodging a run because I have no time. Went to bed too late the other night so I had to sleep in this morning and then it was off to the pediatrician's office for my son's 3-year “Wellness” exam. And that brings me to a topic near and dear to my heart—service (and hence, a new blog category).

Is it me or do doctor visits suck when it comes to providing good service to the customer? Don't get me wrong, if I have to choose between lousy service and a good doctor, I'll take the good doctor. But is it too much to ask for both?

Today's visit to my son's pediatrician is a typical example. We arrive early for our 9:15 appointment and don't actually see the doctor until around 10:05. I'm asked to “verify“ the patient information by filling out a blank form instead of the office printing what they have and allowing me to update or correct it. It's an entire half day to see the doctor and it's been like this since I was a kid. Are they using typewriters back there? Why does “patient processing“ seem to take the same amount of time today that it did twenty years ago? I understand managed care and PPO's and all that, but I'll pay above what my insurance gives them if they can get me in and out within an hour, schedule my appointment and retrieve my patient records via the web, and validate my damn parking so I can breeze through the toll booth.

Slow down, smell the roses, what's the hurry? But that's just it—I want to do other things than sit in a germ laden examining room telling my son for the umpteenth time to stay away from the red biohazard trash can while we wait for the doctor.

And yes, I understand emergencies but it's always like this. We've tried to game the system—we don't schedule on Mondays or Fridays, we schedule for the first appointment of the day, and I'm willing to wait our turn when someone else's kid is sick or there's an emergency. But doctor office visits are typically terrible and that's probably why you don't get surveyed on your experience. I get surveyed by the car repair place, after making a change to my cellular service, and hotels after a visit. But I've never been asked by a doctor's office for my satisfaction on anything (hospital yes, doctor no). And I'd LOVE to give them some feedback on what it's like sitting in the waiting room with all the sick kids crawling on the plastic furniture and then being asked back to another room and sit some more.  

Provide my unsolicited opinion to our pediatrician? Yeah, and then be asked to go back to the end of the line. Remember the Seinfeld episode where Elaine was tagged as a difficult patient? There's some truth to that.

I dunno, it just seems to me that doctor offices are ripe for someone to come in and improve the efficiency and patient experience while maintaining the level knowledge of care.

Am I missing something?