Black sheep

How do you know who is the black sheep in your family? It's all relative, I suppose. The Farm Manager has an older brother who joined a biker gang, and a younger brother who became a lawyer. Not hard to guess who got the "black sheep" label there, especially in a Jewish family. Not too many Jewish mothers bragging up "my son the biker." In my family, I would have been the black sheep save for one of my three brothers, the "kid" if you're acquainted with the archives. I gave it my best shot, but when you apply objective criteria like, for example, number of police car rides, or number of ambulance rides, both of which are highly relevant to black sheep status, I gotta admit the "kid" has me beat hands down. Took a tour down south today for some family time. The folks are still spry and have their wits about them, which not everyone has who is knocking on the door of their 9th decade on this earth. Plus, they live independently in their own place. I always come away from these visits with the low-down on my various nieces and nephews. They're an interesting lot. Lots of over-achievers, a few under-achievers, and one particular dude who, as I write these words, is working as a fishing guide at a fly-in fishing resort in northern Canada, somewhere near the Arctic Circle. That's the kind of place rich people spend $10k per week to go fishing. And here's how stupid rich people are; they don't even get to eat the fish! Ten grand for a week of fishing and it's strictly catch and release! How retarded is that? Anyway, when dear nephew chose his post secondary education, he found some obscure college in Colorado that offered a one year diploma in "Outdoor Recreation." So he's a ski-patrol at famous resorts in the winter, and a guide at elite fishing lodges in the summer. His siblings, who took more conventional paths of study, aren't having anywhere near as much fun. Relatively speaking, I guess he's the black sheep...