Vocabulary lesson

Today, Claire & I drove home from swap at Matt & Sonya's house in a hard rain. Harder than we usually get up here in the Northwest. Claire was impressed. She kept asking me to turn off the windshield wipers so she could see how long it took before we couldn't see out the front windshield.

Near the Sellwood Bridge, the rain came in sheets across our car. A word popped into my head. I figured it might be a word Claire hadn't heard before. Being the wise and earnest father that I think I am, I decided to use our pause at a stoplight as a teaching moment. I turned toward the back seat.

"This is what I would call a torrential rain," I told Claire.

"Me, too!" she cried. "A torrential rain. Yeah, let's call it a torrential rain."

The light turned green and I started to drive away when Claire spoke up again.

"This is what I would call a tantalizing rain," she said.

So much for my vocabulary lesson.