I know better than to leave the needle that long...after a small panic attack, I will be doing proper maintenance on this machine. It's not that I don't own other machines, I have 3 Singer Treadles, a Singer Quattro, A Janome Gem and A Janome MemoryCraft 11000. Unfortunately, this machine is my all time favorite (Janome 6600P), so I guess I better take better care of her. Once again, thank you, to everyone that responded to my question!