Sewing Woes

My sewing machine broke on Sunday! Ok, so actually it probably broke about a week ago. I started noticing it had an extra clicking noise when it sewed. (It's quite a noisy machine so I'm amazed that I noticed the extra click.) I figured it just needed to be oiled and so I started thinking about maybe looking to see if I had any oil in it somewhere...possibly. Honestly, I was only starting to wonder if I could use hair clipper oil on it. I'm a little lazy when it comes to machine maintenance. I need to work on that. The machine I have is the one my mother got when she got engaged to my father...in the 70's. It's an old Kennmore, and it seems like a lot of people have similar machines. They're built solidly and can definitely take a TON of use. I sort of wish that sewing machines had odometers on them so I could tell how many stitches it has sewn. In the past 6 months I have used it more than I have the whole time I've had it.
Anyway, so it had been clicking--I ran out of bobbin (does anyone else still get annoyed when the bobbin runs out and it turns out the past foot you've sewn actually isn't sewn, even though you know it will happen every time the bobbin runs out?). I pulled out the bobbin to wind it anew and there was an extra piece of metal in there with it. (!!!) Look, I took pictures:

 With flash.

 Without flash: see the little piece of metal on the open door?

 It goes right there. See how the right side has a thin piece of metal that loops around the thicker piece of metal? The left side doesn't have that...any more. Also note how dusty it is. I'm looking forward to taking an "after" picture of how clean it is when I get it back. 

Aaaaand another picture just like the second one. 

I took it in to the shop to get fixed, fully anticipating it to take a week. They told me the part that is broken isn't made anymore because it's so old but if they had one on a machine in the back they could just swipe it from that. It's called the hook driver spring. My kind sister-in-law lent me her (also ancient) machine to use in the meanwhile. 

I took it in yesterday and I got an email today saying it was done. I plan on picking it up tomorrow! It's strange how attached you get to a little machine when you use it almost every day. I've felt like I'm missing a limb. Ok, that's a little over-dramatic, but I have missed it. My sister-in-law's machine is nice though. It sure is a lot quieter than mine. It also has tighter stitches. It drives me nuts that it doesn't have a sharp hook to cut threads on though.