Got A Machine?

Here I am in prime time sewing machine mode, trying to get some Bundaflicka Bags ready for show season, and my Janome decides to act up. I avoided disaster already this summer when I figured out how to repair the damage done when my Janome was placed on the floor in order to eat dinner when Eric and Annie were here. The doggies decided to chew off the thread holder. I was able to bend it back into place well enough to hold the spool while I sew. Now it's the bobbin apparatus. The bobbin thread is spewing out all over the place. I kept my cool, no seizing or hyperventilating...I took a drink of coffee, I took it apart, cleaned it out, peeked around, can't figure out why it's making noise and doing weird things with the bobbin thread. The only sewing machine repair person around here is a guy who picks up machines in Norwich at Sew Nice. I've used him before and he is a classic rip off artist. Luckily, I picked up a gem of an antique Depression-era machine at the New Berlin Quilt Festival for $75. It's one step up from the Singer Featherweight, and this one came with a cabinet. I got it threaded, and it's sewing fine. It's a bit like driving a tractor compared with a sports car, but that's okay for now. The guy I bought it from fixes machines but he's an hour and a half from here, north of Syracuse! I'm trying to do a bag or two a day now. I just can't be without a sewing machine. With me, it's like a cowboy with no horse. Omigosh, just looked at the floods in the midwest...and here I am complaining about a broken sewing machine. Thanks be to Jesus I am on HIGH ground.