So another try. This time I turned off the water heater and waited for a couple of hours. The turned off the source and then opened inside faucet. Went outside and opened the pressure relief valve and waited until it had emptied and even waited until it was nearly done dripping. I then snapped the switch, closed the faucet, turned on the water source and started the electric water heater. We shall see tomorrow how it is doing. It just seems strange that as a matter of course it would drip every time I run the hot water for more than a minute.