An American in Provence

So I sent in my dossier to get my new carte vitale on Tuesday. Today, Saturday, I got a letter from the Caisse D'Assurance. Can this be? Did it really take less than 5 months to get an official card from the French Government? I felt the envelope, and there was definitely nothing stiff and card-shaped inside. It was a letter, saying that I needed to send a copy of a non-expired ID. My carte de sejour expired Sept. 30th, and I still haven't gotten the new one. Instead, I have to go back every three months to get a temporary one. So since my current one runs out in three days, I will have to go on Friday, my once every two weeks day off, to the Prefecture and wait several hours to get another temporary one. At this point, I am wondering if I will get the new official carte before it expires, which I am guessing will again be Sept. 30th. Last year I got my carte in January, I hope there is nothing wrong with my file.
Anyway, I was impressed by three things upon receiving this letter:
1) Someone actually noticed that the card was expired. This is the first time anyone has noticed it when I have presented it.
2) They actually wrote me a letter saying that they needed an additional piece of information, instead of just putting in the incomplete folder, then my waiting 4+ months with no word, contacting them to find out what the heck is taking so long, and being told that it is incomplete and that they are just to busy to write a letter or leave a message on an answering machine.
3) That there was less than a week of turn-around time. I mean Wow.