Birthday Comes But Once A Year

Sunday, February 14, 2021, Meadowlands Stadium, New York/New Jersey

A national anthem being performed, not sung, by a popstar. National pride. A people which celebrates itself. And 22 modern gladiators, geared in an carbon armor, fighting for an eggshaped ball.

Welcome to the 55th Super Bowl in American football history.

And my 40th birthday. I practice the custom to celebrate round birthdays at a special place: like the VIP-box of the Meadowlands Stadium. But more important than being at a special place is being with good company. Right now Tom, a power engineer, is with me. He organized the tickets. The rest is fetching a drink or something to eat.

"Tom, isn't Super Bowl on the first sunday in february normally?" 

"This years football finals happen to be on the second sunday in february due to an earthquake which wrecked havoc upon the original location for this event, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. A sad but convinient coincidence. Earthquakes are quite common today, even in regions which used to be 'save'. But our construction technology has advanced so few people are hurt. But a ruined building is still a ruined building, isn't it?"

"Sure. And so they moved this event to New York?"

"Yeah, they just finished rebuilding this stadium. More visitors, more sold tickets, more money you know? How do you think did I get the tickets?"

"Come on, you are working for the national energy providers. You cannot tell me you have no connections."

"You are damn right I am working for the providers HERE. So guess where my connections are?"

I gave him a puzzled look.

"Ok, I'll give you a hind: The big quake '15, Energy Decentralization. Rings a bell?"

"Oh, I know what you mean. Each city, each bigger facility has its own power plants..."

"Or other power sources...and there is no big national energy provider anymore. General Electrics is dead." He remarked.

"And you were buildung the fusion plant in New York and not the one in L.A.?"

"Bingo. By the way the guys in L.A. do not use cold fusion like we here. They use a combination of tidal electricity and energy provided my tectonic friction. Earthquakes are not solely a bad thing, there is a lot of power in it too."

"Ok, so every city uses the local power which is available? Sounds strange, you have no grid?"

"Nah the times of grids are over. Too many quakes, storms, droughts, let's call them anomalies. No infrastructure can resist these natural forces for a longer period of time. But you do not need a 'classical' power grid anymore. As you can see. We can also sleep with lights on." Tom chuckled, pointing to the festival of lights around us.

"Every city has its own plants and smaller villages also have there own smaller plants. They use grid technology in local areas, comparable to city energy grids but nothing nation wide. Also Papa Rednack in the far backs of the great plains wants to watch the match. By the way it starts now. You don't want to miss a thing. It's your first time here, isn't it?"

With these words he led me to my seat and an unforgettable evening started.