My poor bow :(

I am so upset with myself right now. I guess the only good thing is that all of this happened right at the end of my lesson yesterday instead of at home, work, or rehearsal. What happened? The winding on my bow came loose. What? The solid gold winding on my best bow came loose as I was wiping it down yesterday. I should explain that a bow's winding comes in two parts. First a metal winding (although student bows are often plastic), which is typically either silver or gold. The better the bow, the more expensive and heavier the winding (gold being heavier than silver). Second is a leather piece that goes at the base of the metal winding for comfort while holding the bow.

 Maybe I gripped it too much, or maybe I started wiping lower than normal. I don't know. All I know is that half of the winding is nice and tight, and the other half. Well, it's not so tight. I don't trust anyone but the maker of my fabulous bow to fix it. I've heard too many horror stories (and I'm a little worried one shop might try and steal it. Sad, but again I've heard stories). There are just a few problems:

1. The bow maker lives in Spain, so I have to ship the bow to him. This is normally not a problem, but it's international shipping. It also has to be insured (because it's an expensive bow), and it can't just sit in shipping trucks and planes. All of this adds up to roughly $180 each way. Hopefully a few other people need to send bows too (crossing fingers!!!!)
2. Did I mention the winding is made out of gold? Yeah, gold. While a gold winding is a good sign of a really nice bow, it's also not cheap to replace. Again fingers are crossed that the winding can be saved. Otherwise it's big bucks to replace.
3. Since it's going over I'm getting my free rehair too. Might as well. I've owned the bow for 2 years now and this will be the first rehair. Michael uses the best materials he can get his hands on, and it shows. (and I'm grateful for that!)

To be honest I'm not sure if I'm more freaked out that I messed up my bow, or how much it's going to cost to get it back up and playing. There is no question that it cannot be used at all in it's current state. Fortunately my teacher has a bunch of Michael's bows so I can borrow one. It's still a fabulous bow (I should say that I would buy 10 of his bows in a heartbeat if I had the money), but it isn't my bow, and I'm not very excited about using. It's a little stiffer, and a little heavier, and did I mention that it isn't mine. I'm going to do some baking later. Maybe that will help. Or maybe some speed training on tomorrow's run. Although chocolate sounds good now too. I just miss my bow. I feel like one of my arms is missing...