2021.12.12.
Christmas lighting
Sunday, 1st Advent, 10 am:In Önkelstieg, an estate of terraced houses,
pensioner Erna B. has 3 electric candles installed
by her grandson Norbert on the windowsill of her
living room. A pre-Christmas mood is spreading.
Everybody is happy.
10:14 AM:
When emptying the trash can
neighbor Ottfried B. observes the provocative Christmas
offensive in the house next door and immediately counters
by deploying the 10-armed Danish candle set,
15 watts each, in the kitchen window.
Hours later, the entire estate Önkelstieg is ablaze
with in the thoughtful glow of 134
electric window decorations.
19:03:
14 kilometers away at the coal power station Sottrup-
Höcklage the engineer on duty
inadvertently registers a fault in the ammeters
for the Stenkelfeld-Nord area, but is
still unsuspecting at first glance.
20:17:
Mr. and Mrs. Horst and Heidi E. succeed in connecting
a ladder network of 96
halogen film floodlights through all the trees
of their orchard to the three-phase power supply.
Parts of the local birdlife start building nests in confusion.
20:56:
Discotheque owner Alfons K. finds himself compelled
to do his bit to the pre-Christmas atmosphere
and installs on the flat roof of his bungalow the laser light set 'Metropolis“,
one of the best high-output sets in Europe.
The 40-meter façade of an adjacent granary
withstands the continuous fire of the Santa Claus
projection for several minutes before it crumbles with an ugly sound.
9:30 p.m:
In the hustle and bustle of a Yule party at Sottrup-Höcklage coal power station, the alarm signal in generator hall 5 goes unheard.
21:50:
85-year-old war veteran August R. magics
the Star of Bethlehem on the low-hanging cloud layer
by means of 190 anti-aircraft searchlights, model 'Varta Volkssturm'.
22:12:
A group of frightened Asian businessmen traveling light and wearing summer clothes roams about Önkelstieg. Earlier, a Boeing 747 of Singapore Airlines, destination Sydney, accidentally landed in the garage driveway of bakery Bröhrmeyer, which is paved with 3000 colorful neon lights.
10:37 p.m:
Voyager 7 radios images of an alleged supernova on the northern hemispherefrom the edge of the Milky Way.
Experts in Houston
are at a loss.
22:50:
A light tremor shakes the area around coal power station Sottrup-Höcklage.
The entire complex with its 30 turbines is running roaring beyond its load limit at 350 megawatts.
11:06 p.m:
In Önkelstieg housing estate, lit as bright as daylight, student Bettina U. wakes up and mistakenly rejoices in a sunny December morning.
At exactly 11:12 p.m., she flips the switch on her coffee machine.
11:12:14 p.m.:
The explosion of coal power station Sottrup-
Höcklage breaks like thunder into the sudden darkness of the entire Stenkelfeld district. Distraught people wander through pitch-black villages - people like you and me, for whom one candle on the Advent wreath was not enough.