U.F.O. Sighting - Are You a Believer?

It was about a quarter to eleven at night, and I figured I had better get my butt in gear. My son needed a lemon for a school science experiment in the morning, and I still hadn't made my way to the store to buy one.

Tearing myself away from CSI Miami, I put my sandals on and grabbed my purse. If I hurried, I could probably catch the end of the program, an episode I hadn't seen, which was a rare occurrence.

My son, who turned twelve a few days ago, was sound asleep, so I asked the upstairs neighbour to keep an ear open, just in case, while I was gone. We chatted for a bit about her car, that I had inadvertently backed into earlier this week - lucky, lucky me - and after reiterating that I wouldn't be gone long, I walked to the driveway to unlock my van.

I have no idea what made me look up. I was giving a cursory glance around, like I usually did before I opened my vehicle, and happened to spot a trio of unusual lights hanging stationary in the sky a few hundred yards away.

I didn't immediately start screaming hysterically that we were being invaded, mostly because I hadn't ascertained exactly what the lights were, and also because I'm not the type given to over-the-top-theatrics, (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

I remember wondering if there was some sort of tower close by that I hadn't noticed before, but rejected that idea. It was dark, but not so bIack as to not be able to see the actual structure. I studied the lights, still confused as to why I hadn't seen them before now, and began pondering what I was actually seeing, all of which took me a matter of seconds.

The lights were bright red, the same hue found on hundreds of Christmas trees each year, and formed a right angle, triangular pattern. I heard the sound of an aircraft, and pondered that the lights might be the underside of a jet, (because of the configuration) but as they didn't appear to be moving in any particular direction, and the only aircraft I know of that can hover isn't one that graces the skies in our neighbourhood, I was forced to discount that theory also.

All thoughts of lemons and CSI evaporated from my mind as I continued to watch the lights. The noise of the plane's engine grew louder, yet the sound didn't seem to be coming from the direction I was looking. After what felt like a minute, (but was closer to thirty seconds) I risked a quick glance to confirm my suspicions. Sure enough, I saw the airplane fly over the roof of our house, to my right, its white lights flashing on the underside.

My brain suddenly made a connection, and I realized that I could not be looking at an aircraft, as all aircraft lights blink, with the exception of their landing lights, and they do not have 'all red' running lights.

At this particular point, I decided I shouldn't be the only person witnessing this phenomena, after all, I needed support! So, without taking my eyes away from the spectacle, I stumbled towards the front of our house, and began knocking on the door until it was answered.

When my neighbour finally came to the door, I excitedly asked, "Do you see that?" She came out onto the front step and looked where I was pointing.

"Oh," she said, "That's a satellite."

Now I ask you, as I did her, when have you ever seen three satellites in orbit, in a triangular configuration, this close, and not move? The only time I have witnessed a satellite traipsing across the night sky, it was so small and distant, that it could have been mistaken for a star. Not withstanding the fact, and here I repeat myself, it was moving! Having rejected another, seemingly, logical explanation for what I was seeing, I continued to stare in awe at the spectacle before me, my brain clicking over and over again that this wasn't real!

After what felt like an interminable amount of time, which, in actuality was maybe the space of five minutes from when I first spotted them, the middle light that formed the left angle of the triangular pattern, started moving slowly to the right, until it was directly below the one above it. At the same time, the light representing the right angle, began moving left, until it was centered below the other two.

I glanced at my neighbour, and with a huge grin on my face, said, "Splain that one!" All she could do was smile back at me, shaking her head. We watched in disbelief, as all three lights appeared to shrink in size and colour, continuing to stay in the now vertical formation, until first, the middle light disappeared, followed closely by the bottom one, and finally, the top light winked out, leaving no trace in the now pristine, night sky.

We couldn't discount what we had seen, aside from the both of us hallucinating at the exact same time, which by all counts, is as preposterous as the theory suggests, despite what the adjacent picture implies, and I will add here, that neither one of us partook of any hallucinogen, so we were left with the only logical, or illogical - depending on our own personal views - explanation as to what we had witnessed.

My neighbour smiled indulgently at me and returned to whatever I had dragged her away from, to bear witness to my discovery, and after a final, almost disbelieving glance skyward, I reluctantly returned to the task of purchasing the necessary lemon for my son's school project.

I must admit to being very disappointed by the fact, that although I did have a witness to prove that I wasn't 'off my rocker', she was decidedly unimpressed by the event. Her son-in-law, who I had been hoping would be the one to join me in my discovery, (and would have been just as excited and intrigued as I had been,) wasn't home.

After returning from my lemon expedition, and participating in a silent 'should-I-shouldn't-I' debate, I called the local constabulary to ask who I could phone to report what I had seen. He returned to the line from answering a 911 call, and politely gave me the number of the UFO B.C. Hot-line, which I promptly called and left a message for a call back.

It will be most interesting to see what transpires from my message, and I will definitely keep you informed of the results, should there be any. If you see a UFO, the local number for the province for British Columbia is:1-604-878-6511.

To quote from numerous television shows, movies, scientists, and fellow UFO sighters, "We are not alone..."

You really should check out Paper Moon's hub Boy, do I Feel Stupid

As of Sunday, June 7th, 2009

For everyone who expressed an interest in the 'what happens next' scenario, I am keeping my promise and posting the follow up conversation with UFO B.C.

I was beginning to wonder if anyone besides myself, and my fellow Hubbers, were the only people interested in what I had witnessed the evening of June 1st of this year. The phone calls to the local news papers and radio station had gone unanswered, and I was still waiting to hear back from UFO B.C., the one place I was sure, would be interested.

Finally, around 2:00 o'clock Sunday afternoon, I received a phone call. The caller identified himself as Richard, (I confess to not remembering his last name,) from the UFO B.C. hot-line. I was thrilled! Not only was someone other than myself interested, he was as excited by my experience as I was.

I related everything I saw, with as much detail as possible, interspersed with answering his questions. He asked things like, "If you held your hand at arms length from your body, would the objects appear to be the same size as say your little fingernail, or your thumb?" In anwer to that question, the lights were the size of a fifty cent piece. (I thought initially they were the size of a quarter, but after repeating the exercise, I amended the size accordingly.)

He wanted to know how close the lights appeared, how long the sighting lasted, what colour the lights were, did they move, did they blink, what position were they in, what direction was I facing when I saw them, and did they change colour.

He then asked me questions as to my state of mind after witnessing this phenomena. Was I scared, nervous, excited, curious, confused or upset in any way. Then came the kicker. He asked me what was it that I thought I saw.

After dismissing the idea of a Harrier jet hovering at treetop level in my neighbourhood, or the possibility of a a tower being erected in the middle of the night without any signs of construction, not to mention the fact that it couldn't have been a single engine plane, we discussed the ideas of a possible military operation. That, of course, brought us nearly to tears of laughter.

For anyone who doesn't know, Canada doesn't have an exceptionally large military presence. I think there are more submarines in West Edmonton Mall than the entire Canadian Navy.

I assured him that I was not so obtuse as to believe what I saw was a manifestation of swamp gas, or, heaven forbid, a weather balloon, and as there had been no sign of men wearing black suits and sunglasses brandishing 'flashy thingies' I had to conclude what I had witnessed was the real deal, which of itself, was an exciting possibility.

He told me that I was not alone in my sighting above my small town, and concluded the phone call with the promise of a future interview, and would I mind if he took pictures. After he hung up, I checked out the website he mentioned, and discovered that including mine, there had been three sightings, starting May 3rd at 10:30 p.m., and another on June 1st approximately the same time as mine.

All three sightings are similar - three orangish/red lights, triangular pattern, vertical pattern, diminishing in size, and finally winking out. There were a couple of deviations to the phenomena that I witnessed, but the similarities lead me to conclude we all saw the same ufo, or ufo's, at different times.