Today, my toilet broke. More specifically, the rubber bit that covers the hole in the bottom of the tank (the part that gets pulled up via a chain attached to the flush lever) decided to finally disintegrate. On the whole, it's still okay, but there are some loops at the back of it which hook over a couple of pegs and function as hinges. Those thin little loops of rubber are now, well little crumbs of rubber that turn into green goo when you touch them. Now when I push the lever, the flap opens up to allow the tank to drain, and then, sans hinges, flys off to some random spot in the tank, which is determined by the vigourousness of the flushing action, and the length of the chain.

I called my landlord. They're going to send someone over to fix it on Monday. Today is Friday. I'm rather not inclined to continue sticking my hand in the tank every time I flush the toilet. I have serious doubts that my girlfriend is really willing to, either; she already left it for me to look at once, without doing any investigative work, and, I might add, without bothering to tell me it was broken (I found that out eventually, on my own, by waking up to the sound of an incessantly running toilet).

After looking at it for a few minutes, I figured I could fix it. I clipped a few inches of wire from a spare coat-hanger, and made some little U pieces. I poked tiny holes in the end of the rubber doohickey, beside the crumbly hinge loops, and stuck the U pieces in the holes. I hung the flap bag on the pegs, hooked the chain back up, and gave the toilet a test-flush. It works like a charm.

Satisfaction is the feeling you get from using your imagination to fix something that's broken.

You do know replacement rubber doodoohickey thingies cost less than $2 at Lowe's?

I've replaced several of those flappers over the years. If you have a friendly neighborhood plumbing supply store, that's preferable over the mega-hardware stores because they'll have probably 20+ different flappers in stock. Just take the old one along and ask them to find you a replacement for it. There are subtle but significant differences from one flapper to another, and you want to get the one that properly fits your toilet.

"Remember.... money can't buy everything."

True enough...but it can buy a toliet flapper. Your last name isn't Goldberg is it?

Heh. No. I had a couple other things that needed fixing around the apartment, so the handyman had to come by, anyway. The other thing is just the principle of it all -- I don't want to spend money on improvements for a property that I don't own.

Oh, I looked at the price tag for the flapper that got installed: over $5.