NEAR tool performance seems much slower

I was wondering if anyone has issues with the Near function. It takes FOREVER!! A few months ago it did not seem to take even 1/4 as long as it does now. My machine did not age that much or loss much of its processing power. I am almost performing the same NEAR that I did a few months ago. I have no idea why it is sooo slow. I tried to just run 1 Near function instead of looping it in my script and it still took forever

Anyone else have issues with near? Any work arounds?

All I want to do is get a measurement from a point, to the closest line. This way I can query my points with arguments such as >100 ft. etc.. The lines I am wanting a measurement to are a stream network, the National Hydrography 24k.

I know this is not a python scripting question but an interesting issue none the less.

Thanks!