Drip Dry

The rug at the base of my toilet was sopping wet again the other day.  Again, I believe it occurs when my tub faucet drips exuberantly, splashes onto the floor, and seeps beneath the vinyl tiles until the rug wicks up the moisture.  As much as I like the maintenance guy here at the apartments, I'm tired of waiting for him to come and fix my faucet.  I came up with a plan.

I placed a bucket (about 2 gal. capacity, I think) beneath the tub faucet before I left for work one morning.  It was 4:57 a.m.  I stayed a little late that day, so I didn't return home until 3:47 p.m., 10 hours and 50 minutes later.  The bucket was overflowing.  If the tub drips more than two gallons in less than eleven hours, how much does it drip in a day?  A week?  A month?  (That was a rhetorical question, by the way.  I know I could calculate the answers if I really wanted them.)

I had to pour a little out of the bucket so it wouldn't slosh all over my carpet, but it still made an impressive display for the apartment manager.  The maintenance man was at my apartment in less than five minutes, and the faucet was fixed that afternoon.

Now it's kind of odd to walk into the bathroom and not see and hear the tub dripping.