Out of Service
August, 2010, Nanaimo Magazine
By Lesley Lorenz
Bleeped across the top of my cellphone, out of service brings a smile to my face. Tucked in behind Mt. Benson for a few days of living in the woods, we are camping and splashing about in the lake. In the evenings, we stare in to the campfire – and ever so luckily – there is a bluegrass troupe camped not too far away. We can hear the strumming of a banjo, decorated with a jiggidy fiddle and accompanied by a husky voice belting out “May the Circle Be Unbroken”. Heaven, descended, lays amongst the campfire smoke and frog song that surrounds the lake.
2:00 am, and I am awoken by a single star, its light piercing through a fold in the curtain, winking at me. I creep out of the wee campervan we own, and stare upwards, but the canopy of branches blocks my gaze. I decide to head towards the lake, first convincing my new husband that I would be such delicious cougar bait that it is imperative that he escort me on my trek to the water if he wants me to be around to fry up his bacon in the morning.
As we reach the water’s edge and the mirror of the lake opens up before us, my heart jumps to my mouth. The sky looks as if royalty had played Hansel and Gretel, dropping jewels instead of breadcrumbs across the velvety sky. The big dipper is poised over the lake, ready to scoop up its dark watery coolness in its gigantic ladle. The immense “W” of Cassiopeia also presides over the lake, a striking constellation found near the North Star. And soon to be on the dramatic ebony stage – the Perseid Meteor shower! Pack a midnight picnic in August (peaks around the twelfth) and look skyward to see what the ancients called the “Tears of St. Lawrence.” Actually debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle, the grains of ice and dust from the comet’s tail enter the atmosphere at 71 miles per hour. Boldly cast your desires to the sky -the display allows for dozens of wishes on falling stars in just one night. Good luck star gazers!