Got a call from my wife tonight. She and my sister, Patty, are safely living at our parent’s house. It was through the efforts of my grandfather and father that The Association has become so outrageously wealthy. It always “had money”, but the patents of my father and grandfather have been so lucrative and have been of such benefit to every Western govt on the planet, that our reserves are, more or less, unlimited. These reserves extend directly to my family’s finances and my family has been able to buy a huge tract of land between my house and my father’s/grandfather’s house, roughly 140 square miles. My great-great grandfather wanted to do this, but it was only recently that we could do it. My father wants to call it the “Smith Compound” and have all of his children and other extended family build their homes on it. Given the family predilection for depression and, in some cases, suicide, having a huge piece of land where the entire family can be close to one another makes us all feel better somehow.
North Archipelago 