What to do when a crucial piece is in the shop?

You could view it as an opportunity to acquire a new skill; learn a new language, become an airplane pilot, write a novel, clean up your bedroom, etc. ;-)

I am sort of on the same boat. I accidentally tripped on my speaker cable and damaged the driver that the cable is connected to since I hardwire the cable directly to the driver. And, just before that, the AC socket on my transport/cd player broke probably a result from testing out numerous powercords. Well, I am using an older pair of speakers that I am actually selling now and using an old dvd player as transport in the mean time. They actually sound pretty good still.

I just take long elevator rides. The sound reminds me of my favorite pair of full-range single driver speakers and it makes me smile.

So, if you are ever in LA and see a middle aged smiling man loitering in/around an elevator telling people to shoosh, chances are that part of my rig's in the repair shop.

I have a somewhat expensive but useful option for the future, keep two systems active:
-reference system with your best stereo gear
-smaller cheaper 2nd system, can be just small integrated amp and monitor speakers for stereo. Same principal applies to video/HT since almost everyone has more than one TV in house.

Many advantages here:
-very helpful/easy finding problem in main rig if you can swap out each piece with gear in system 2
-can break in cables/new gear in system 2 without tying up reference system for this choir.
-gives you luxury of trying different combinations/types of gear paired together.

Sorry to hear of you current problems and hope everything is resolved soon.

Do you want to trade problems? What would you do if your house burned down in a forest fire?