Mind-Blowing CD (Yet Another Carpool Tale)

CD (he's the youngest member of Carpool Clan, I dubbed him CD for Carpool Destroyer because when he joined carpool we could no longer fit everyone in one car) does not quite know what to with me. We should be natural allies since he would, above all things, like to play with Legos and read - which is pretty much how I spent my child-hood. However, he is extremely literal and does not quite know what to make of my ahem, flights of fancy. Also, I used to bite him (in my defense, he is delicious.)

The other day in carpool he used the words rarely and occasionally interchangeably and when questioned said, "Well, they mean the same thing."

"Not quite," I replied, "Rare, when not referring to the optimal way to cook meat, is the opposite of often. So rarely quite specifically means that a phenomenon does not happen often. Occasionally means that the phenomenon happens on occasion. The occasion could be frequent, although usually not. So you are, for the most part, correct in saying they mean the same thing. But there is a subtle difference."

"How do you know so much about words?" CD asked, surprised.

"I'm a writer. I work with words for a living."

"Wait, really. I thought you were a crazy guy who just drove carpool."

"No, I've written three books, and I'm writing two more." Well technically two of them are co-authored, but still. I'm talking to an nine-year old.

"And dozens of articles!" Why I'm trying to impress him is beyond me.

"So people pay you to write?"

"Yeah, but not very much."

"So do you ever write anything cool?"

"NOOO! Don't ask him anything else! He only writes about Vice Presidents and terrorism!" GoofGirl and 3C yelled in unison.

Still, perhaps I've cultivated a much needed ally...