Goodbye red evnelope

 

We've had the Netflix DVD service almost since it started in the early 2000's. Over 25 years, 5.2 billion CD's were sent through the mail and Netflix was once the biggest business account for the Post Office.

It was my job to organize the DVD queue on my laptop, adding movies and putting them in the priority we wanted to watch. For a long time, Neflix was excellent for old classics and esoteric documentaries, and you could even request DVD's which they would buy and send.

We noticed the service declining in the last year or so, with long waits even for popular new movies. The writing was on the wall, and Netflix announced their DVD mailing service ends in September. We were already down to the "one DVD at a time" level and it was more frustrating than anything, so we won't miss it much. Still, the end of an era.

So that leaves us with the Netflix streaming service, Amazon Prime, PBS Passport and something from PBS called World's Greatest Television, also YouTube, maybe some others I forget. More than enough to keep up with, when only watch an hour or so of TV each night. 

Lately, we've been streaming movies included "free" in my Amazon Prime subscription, like "The Graduate." Some of these classics still pack a real punch. Of course, we could get up off our duffs and get DVD's at the library. But we're lazy, and also have a home collection of favorite movies John bought over the years, many of them Bluray. As I say, no lack of things to watch.

Something is about to happen that rarely does in Seattle. That is, a beautiful stretch of weather for the Memorial Day weekend, which usually turns into a chilly wash-out. The highways across the state will be jammed for the next several days, but I hope to get to Twisp next week after things settle down.

Not a cloud in the sky this morning. My ukulele group is playing this afternoon at the Water Taxi dock on Alki. It's a fun location, but probably the worst area to find parking in West Seattle, especially if you're lugging a chair, music stand, etc. So I made a reservation with my private Uber driver. The ferry pier is just a few minutes from home. Oh, those lucky folks, getting on and off the foot ferry this afternoon. No escaping the entertainment, ha ha!