Tried to translate a German comedy piece about Christmas/holiday decorations.
1st Sunday in Advent
In the town house neighbourhood Önkelstieg retiree Erna B. asks her grandson to install three electric Christmas candles in her window. Pre-Christmas atmosphere spreads and everybody is happy.
10:14 am
While emptying the trashcan, neighbour Ottfried P. notices this provocative Christmas offensive and reacts immediately. He installs a Danish candle holder with 10 candles at 15 Watts each. A little later the whole neighbourhood shines with the pleasant glow of 134 electric window decorations.
7:03 pm
9 miles away the engineer on duty at the cole-fired power plant Sottrop-Höcklage erroneously notices a defect of the power meter for the region Stenkelfeld north but remains unsuspicious.
8:17 pm
Mr and Mrs Horst and Heidi I. succeed in connecting 96 halogen spots to the three phase electric network and light up every tree in their entire orchard. Some of the domestic birds are confused and start their nest-building.
8:56 pm
Club owner Alfons K. feels forced to contribute to the pre-Christmas atmosphere by installing the laser ensemble “Metropolis”, one of the most powerful in whole Europe, onto the roof of his bungalow. The facade of the adjacent, 130 feet tall grain silo withstands the continuous fire of the Santa Claus projection for several minutes before it collapses with a grinding noise.
9:30 pm
In the turbulence of a Christmas celebration the alarm signal of generator hall no. 5 of the power plant Sottropp-Höcklage remains unnoticed.
9:50 pm
85-year old WWII veteran August R. uses his 190 flak spotlights type “Varta Volkssturm” to project the star of Bethlehem onto the low hanging clouds.
10:27 pm
A group of Japanese business men, dressed in summer clothes and with light luggage, strays anxiously through the Önkelstieg neighbourhood. Shortly before a Singapore Airlines Boing 747 has landed erroneously on the driveway of bakery Brömeier which is decorated with 3000 colourful neon fluorescent lights.
10:37 pm
From the edge of the solar system Voyager 7 radios signals of an alleged super nova from the northern hemisphere of the Earth. The specialists in Houston are perplexed.
10:50 pm:
A slight tremor shakes the area around the Sottrup-Höcklage coal-fired power station. The entire complex with its 30 turbines runs roaring at 350 megawatts way beyond its load limit.
11:06 pm:
Student Bettina U. wakes up in the brightly lit settlement of Önkelstieg and is mistakenly happy about the sunny December morning.
At exactly 11:12 p.m. she turned the switch on her coffee machine.
11:12 p.m. and 14 seconds:
The explosion of the Sottrup-Höcklage coal-fired power station bursts like rolling thunder into the sudden darkness of the entire Stenkelfeld district. Disturbed people wander through the pitch black towns - people like you and me, for whom a candle on the Advent table decorations was not enough.
