Book Review: Perigee Moon – by Lynn Schneider

When I started doing reviews, I only wanted to get the word out about the quality indie books I found. It was a natural that I would read our fellow Boomers and Books stories, but I did not intend to review every one of them. What a delight then, when I opened a book by the last of our author members I had not read and knew from the first paragraph I would enjoy it.

In Perigee Moon, our hero, Luke, is just the sort of decent, likeable guy who should end up married to a nice girl and they have a nice family and live happily ever after. He should do that, but he doesn’t. Instead a girl who is not very nice gets her hooks into him and won’t let go. She uses her feminine wiles to catch him up in her dream, tricking him into marriage. Her dream becomes his nightmare and he finds himself at middle age wondering how it is he has allowed himself to come so far away from who he is.

Having not led a conventional life with just one job or one career for thirty or so years, I have often admired those who can do that. This book makes me glad of my choices, well chronicling a nice guy plodding along and doing the jobs expected of him, producing three kids and a dog, a job in IT he no longer cares for, and a dead marriage.

Luke begins escaping by taking up astronomy. He buys a telescope, walking late at night, gazing at the moon and stars and somehow finding meaning in them. One night he decides to stay up and watch a Perigee moon. A Perigee full moon appears much bigger than a normal full moon and this is a Supermoon, an irregular phenomenon with occasionally over a decade between occurrences. He asks his wife to join him, knowing she would not but hoping for it anyway.

That night something changes in Luke and he resolves it is time to end the marriage. But as much as the reader is cheering him on and would like to see him take immediate action, indeed sometimes shouts at him to grow a pair already, he determines he will wait until his youngest daughter leaves home. He begins studying the deep philosophical questions and that gets him through the remaining years.

When the break does finally come, Luke goes on for a while in his dead-end job until one day he finally snaps and just packs up and leaves. He falls into a new job which keeps him outside and working with his hands and slowly he begins to pick up the pieces of his life.

Throughout the book, Luke has been thinking back to a girl from school named Abby he once had a crush on; star-crossed lovers who seem always destined to be apart. He finally meets up with her at a school reunion and discovers the spark is still there. But his ex has broken up with her latest fling, and his precious youngest daughter has always harbored thoughts of her parents reuniting. She encourages the ex to reunite with Luke. Luke is conflicted.

You will have to read the book (and I highly recommend you do), to discover if Luke finally ‘grows a pair’, or will he drift back into old habits because he wants to please his daughter and it would be the easy thing to do…

The author has a unique writing style all her own which I rather enjoyed. The first half of the book plods along, paralleling the pace of the first half of Luke’s life, and is written in third person, past tense. The last half flows smoothly into third person, present tense. This artifice worked very well for the story.

This is the second book in a row I read which was written by a woman with a male lead, not an easy feat but well done in both cases. Kudos to the author.

All in all a satisfying coming-of-middle-age Boomer book which would be enjoyed by all ages.

The Art of Making Tea…

Though my mother and father were pretty heavy coffee drinkers, and most of my older siblings followed suit, I never developed a taste for it. Which is probably not such a bad thing; being one who doesn’t sit still for long, adding caffeine to my diet was likely not a good idea.

In my later years, the social aspect of having a hot beverage began to have appeal. I’d always loved hot cocoa but the sugar required to make it palatable didn’t seem a healthy choice, either. Besides, not every pantry has cocoa in it. Tea seemed a logical choice and I quickly became a fan.  At first I bought tea bags and made individual cups, experimenting with blends. Earl Grey was an early favorite and remains so today. Soon I had several teapots and an array of tea cozies to keep them warm.

As time went on I discovered the joy of brewing loose tea. I owned a small furniture/home accessories shop at the time and brought in several different types of tea pots with built-in infusers, which invariably sold well. I took a few of these home for my own use.

When I closed the store, I decided to launch a tea shop. It was so much fun. We sold tea pots in every shape and size. I loved discovering new designs. There were elegant glass ones; some of ceramic (many colorful and whimsical); sophisticated brushed stainless steel with a thermal layer to keep tea hot longer; hand-painted enameled pots from Europe; and beautiful hand-made cast iron from Japan. Many came with their own hot plates to keep the tea warm.

              

 

 

 

 

Of course our raison d’etre was selling the teas. The entire back wall was filled with shelves of large canisters of every type of tea imaginable. Each time we opened one to fill a bag or give a customer a sample sniff, the fragrance burst into the shop. Goldie Hawn had a home in the ‘hood in which we had the store and I will never forget one Christmas Kurt Russell coming in to purchase a gift for a friend. He was fascinated with the variety of teas and when he saw we were flooded with customers, he asked if he could buy the large canisters and could he help himself. He had a great time coming around back of the till and opening the canisters, scooping his choices into bags or smaller canisters and stuffing the whole into the large canisters once they’d been rung in. He swaggered out with a couple of armfuls, followed by many pairs of star-struck eyes.

I also learned a thing or two about making tea. The best way to make black or herbal teas is to oxygenate the water by bringing it to a full rolling boil for at least 10-30 seconds, which brings out the flavor. For delicate teas such as green, white or oolongs, bring the temperature to about 185 degrees. Always start with fresh cold water for the cleanest taste. Brewing times, too, vary. For black tea, 4-5 minutes; for delicate teas, no longer than 3 minutes. Herbals may require 5-8 minutes to release the full flavor.

 There are many rituals relating to tea. A Japanese tea ceremony can include confections or a meal and last for many hours. For a casual gathering, my all time favorite tea party features flowering tea. Each little ‘bud’ comprises a dried flower in the middle around which tea leaves are painstakingly hand rolled by master artisans from China, then left to dry. When infused, the bud slowly unfurls into a beautiful flower before your eyes and emits wonderful fragrances. They are best made in a glass teapot set in the middle of a table, or served individually in large stemmed wine glasses, brandy snifters or the recently popular wine tumblers. Typically made with green or white tea leaves, the blossoms can be infused several times without losing their distinctive flavor. Afterward they can be placed in the tea pot or a rose bowl with cold water and enjoyed as decoration for a few days.

I sold the tea shop a few years ago when I decided to devote myself to writing full time. It was probably my smallest business venture but it provided great joy.

Writing is a solitary thing, with no mandated breaks for coffee or lunch. I found myself always with a cup of tea at hand. Getting up and making a new pot was occasionally a welcome break, but mostly it became an unwelcome chore. I bought a large thermos carafe and began to make my tea in there. Last year my daughter ran across an automatic tea maker. She suggested I have a look. My family always buys me one larger gift for Christmas and she thought I might like it. I did finally get to see it but chose another gift instead. This year she began hinting at a couple of things I might like. But I’d been thinking of the tea maker all year and delved into some research. There were really only two choices and I decided on the one my daughter originally found.

Although not perfect, I love my new device. There are handy pre-set brewing times for various tea types, though I prefer to customize for my own tastes. There are enough settings options to satisfy even the fussiest brewer and it always remembers the previous settings.  The basket travels up and down a few times during the brewing. If one wants to brew for longer, it has an option to lower the basket for as long as you like. As much as 1 ½ litres can be made at once.

The tea maker is a bit fussy; one has to be careful not to get water down the sides as it could cause an electrical short. But that is still far and away better than having to get up, put on water to boil, wait for the whistle, and get up again to measure and steep the tea.

I recently began using the automatic brew feature, which can be prepared the night before and set to turn itself on at a given time. It’s a delight to wake up to fresh tea and saves precious time before sitting down to write.

The biggest flaw in the device is the keep-warm feature, and it is threefold. Back in the seventies my friend’s mother had a saying I have long adopted: That thing was designed by some dumb man. Not very PC in the world we now live in, what she meant was the designer (who in those days had a high percentage of being male), had probably never set foot in the area or use for which it was intended (also a high percentage of being true then of males). But I digress. The maximum temperature of the warmer is 175 deg. F, which to my taste is tepid. The maximum time it keeps warm is sixty minutes. Who is going to drink 1 ½ litres in one hour? Certainly not me. And worst of all, once you have lifted the pot to pour a cuppa, you must re-set the warmer button. See, some dumb man who does not drink nor make his own tea designed the device. Of course I don’t necessarily think the designer is male, but ‘person’ and ‘their’ does not have the same punch, and some sayings are simply better left non-PC. I have taken to making a second pot in the morning. The overnight brew I pour into my thermos carafe, which does keep the tea hot enough for hours. The second pot I sip until it is too tepid to tolerate then slip the remaining cups into the microwave to heat (oh, sacrosanct!). This way I have enough tea for the entire day. I often alternate between caffeinated tea and herbal (my faves are Rooibos and Honeybush, both from South Africa, and have the look and feel of ‘real’ tea), depending on my whim.

I sometimes make fresh ginger and lemon tea for a break and it is fabulous for that. Much less fussy, and as mentioned elsewhere I am a lazy cook. I used to wrap the chopped ginger in pieces of cheesecloth, which I had to cut from large sheets as I could never find a proper size gauze, and tie up with string so the pieces didn’t enter the cup. The basket eliminates the necessity for all of that and furthermore there is a fine mesh strainer attached to the lid at the spout which catches any stray bits, cleans easily and is pure genius!

A bonus is the machine can be used as a ‘variable temperature’ kettle, however I’m not sure how useful that would be, as the tea is brewed in the carafe and would inherently impart a residual flavor.

But it is not just the convenience of it all that sold me. All types of tea (and yes, I sometimes toss in tea bags) made in the maker have and retain that crisp, clear taste only otherwise found by throwing a handful of tea straight into the pot of boiled water and dealing with the mess later. That is golden to me.

It seems I am not the only one who sips tea all day. Recently Richard Branson posted a piece on LinkedIn entitled, Where I Work: Surrounded By People (and Swimming in Tea), about his casual outdoor office on his island, with staff and visitors coming and going. Beside him was not a cool iced drink as one might expect. He mentioned that the mug on the table beside him contained tea and that he always has some at hand. I smiled, imagining his staff fetching tea for him all day long. I wonder if they have discovered the magic of automatic tea makers…

THE END OF THE WORLD – One Month later…

About this time last year I wrote a piece entitled ‘The End of the World or a New Era?’

Since the world did not appear to have ended on December 21, 2012, as some predicted, I suppose it is safe to say we have entered a New Era. Some say the Mayan long count calendar of 0.0.0.0.1 began anew on December 22^nd, taking us through roughly the next 5125 years.

Let us assume the Mayan scholars who believe this are correct. What is this New Era? Should we be concerned? Exhilarated? A month has gone by and it rather seems as if it is business as usual. Which is as expected. It generally takes a long time to go through an Era.

In one of those circumstantial ways that are no accidents, recently I turned the TV on at a certain time to watch an interview of a friend and somehow the times got messed up and I ended up watching one of the most fascinating interviews I could ever have chosen myself.

The interview was with Dr. Neil Turok, director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.  Perimeter was founded – and funded to the tune of $150 million of his own money, by Mike Lazaridis, co-founder of RIM, better known as BlackBerry, in 2000. Subsequently, the Stephen Hawking Centre at Perimeter Institute was opened in 2011, the first building to which the great man has ever lent his name.

Perimeter, in their own words, is “…a major centre for theoretical physics research, attracting a diverse community of resident and visiting scientists from around the world. They cluster in Waterloo, Ontario, to forge new, mind-bending ideas about the ultimate nature of our universe, from space and time to matter and forces. Driven by curiosity, their mission is to unlock nature’s most profound secrets hidden deep inside the atom and far across the universe.”

I unabashedly admit to being a geek, but only in respect to using geek-stuff and a fascination with the science of things. The nuts and bolts of it I leave for others. I understood about a billionth of what Dr Turok was saying. Theoretical Physicists tend to talk in billions: The Universe we live in is fourteen billion years old; it is 150 billion light years across; it contains hundreds of billions of galaxies, each of which has hundreds of billions of stars. All theoretical, of course.

What caught my attention from the interview were two things I did understand:

1. Human beings have the capacity to conceptualize the Universe in our minds.
2. There is a big Shift coming in human understanding.

Last year I suggested that the beginning of the New Era would be a Renaissance of expansion of invention and creativity encompassing the entire world. That is indeed taking place.

A few days ago I saw an interview on Bravo with Charlie Rose and two youngsters who founded Twitter. Here they talk about social media and interacting with folks around the world, and the social ramifications of that. They are full of ideas and are currently working on a couple of projects including Medium.com, which they term ‘re-imagining publishing’; and Branch, an adjunct to Twitter where individuals can invite like-minded ‘friends’ to engage in certain topics. Both are in early stages, but are meant to encourage longer and more meaningful conversations.

These interviews and other wisdom which has recently come my way from socially conscious entrepreneurs and scientists, have led me to envision the New Age on a much grander scale. What if the new era is an Age of Enlightenment fueled by creativity unleashed by the deeper conversations. Could this age marry up science, metaphysics and entrepreneurship resulting in radical social change, much as the previous ones did?

Almost for certain we are headed toward an understanding of our Earth as one entity. No more will governing bodies be able to stifle the freedom of its citizens by keeping them in the dark. No more can those who know freedom turn their backs on those who do not. The past few decades of the Age of Information is firmly entrenched. We meet people from all over the world. Not only do we talk with them, we see them in images and videos. We have learned to tap into the waves that bring us this technology. From the looks of things we may only have found the tip of the iceberg. There are many other waves of energy available for exploration.

I see Boomers playing a part in this Age of Enlightenment. Many of us have time on our hands and the acquired wisdom of experience of Life in general. We are children of the sixties’ counterculture; we’ve gone through social revolution and war, birth and loss, major catastrophes, deep happiness and deep sadness. We have perspective. We know that life sends us curveballs and we’ve learned that we can survive them. We invented the Internet and we made sure it was freely available in the public domain. We are interested in where things are going; see the need for social change.

The possibilities, as that trite old saw suggests, are endless.

Still, the whole End of the World thing was kind of fun while it lasted. Apparently 12% of us believed that the world would end and 20% or so believed some kind of disaster would take place. A similar number brought in supplies in case. This is not insignificant.

At the very least it made us think. And how often do we humans get to live through the end – and perhaps more importantly, the beginning – of a 5125 year cycle?