The tap kept on dripping.
He gripped the handle with both hands and wrenched clockwise.
The tap kept on dripping.
Perlonk, perlonk, perlonk, every 2.35 seconds, into the laundry's stainless steel trough the tap kept on dripping.
It annoyed him, so he put a dishcloth in the trough to dampen the noise.
The cloth got dampened too.
It annoyed him, but he had no knowledge on how taps worked and no tools to fix it even if he had.
A plumber would cost a lot of money for probably a few minute's work.
That annoyed him.
He went to the library and found a home handyman book that showed how a tap worked and how to fix problems.
He took it home and made notes.
The tap kept on dripping.
He went to the hardware shop with a shopping list and looked for the plumbing section.
There he found the tools and parts, but the selection was large and he was not sure which to buy.
That annoyed him.
He bought the top priced tools as he did not trust cheap ones.
He bought a range of different washers as he was unsure which type would be needed.
The bill was for many dollars but still cheaper than a plumber.
At home he prepared to mend the tap.
First turn of the mains supply.
He could not find the stopcock,
That annoyed him.
He phoned the council and was told a man would come and locate the stopcock next week.
That annoyed him.
The tap kept on dripping.
The man from the council eventually came and poked around for ages before he found the stopcock.
The man cleared away the weeds and dug into the dirt to reveal the rusty device and tried to turn it off.
The thing was jammed and so the man told him he would have to come back another day and replace the valve
That annoyed him.
The tap kept dripping.
Another day finally came and two council workers replaced the faulty stopcock.
At last he was ready to repair the dripping tap.
He turned off the mains supply.
He removed the top of the tap and extracted the jumper and its mangled washer.
He replaced the washer with one from his newly bought collection.
He reassembled the tap.
He turned on the mains.
The tap kept on dripping.
He was very annoyed.
He went back to the handyman book and read some more.
The valve seat was probably damaged because of the damaged washer and the extra pressure exerted to stop the tap dripping.
It could be fixed by using a special tool.
He went back to the hardware store and bought the tool.
He bought a tube of lubricant as an afterthought.
The items cost a lot of dollars but it was still cheaper than getting in the plumber.
He went home and prepared to fix the problem.
He turned off the mains.
He dismantled the tap.
He set the special tool according to the instructions and cleaned up the valve seat.
He replaced the new washer with another from his supply in case it had been damaged by the damaged valve seat.
He applied the lubricant to all the threads in the tap and reassembled the tap.
He turned on the main supply stopcock.
The tap resumed dripping.
The book had advised that some metal turnings from the seat may have been caught under the washer.
The cure was to run the tap hard for a few minutes to clear the metal shreds.
He tried to turn the handle.
Nothing moved.
The tap kept on dripping.
He hit the tap with his fist.
The tap kept on dripping.
He hit the tap with his shoe.
The tap kept on dripping.
He knocked the tube of lubricant onto the floor while struggling with the recalcitrant turncock.
It wasn't lubricant; it was Lock-Tite, a superbly strong metal to metal glue.
The tap kept on dripping.
Frank Brown ©
