what passport backlog?

The third and final international trip of my bone-wearying year of travel is coming up in November. My passport expires this month and I have heard horror stories about it taking forever to get passports renewed so I pulled out all the stops: I sent it off via Priority Mail, paid $60 extra for expedited service, and included a return prepaid Priority Mail envelope. I mailed everything off on Monday, July 30th. The check cleared on August 7th. I received my new passport on Saturday, August 11th. Yesterday, August 13th, I received a letter from the US Passport Administration Office telling me they had received my request and were processing it. :-)