Oh Fabjous Vacation!!

Don't you just love getting ready to go on vacation? I believe the days preceding the actual trip are just as filled with anticipation and joyful expectation as the actual thing itself. Carol and I with friends Charlie and Cindy are heading for the cabin on Monday. We have a great little place on a most beautiful lake in south central Illinois. Pana Lake, the place of peace and the actual catching of fish. Not just fishing. Fishing is looking for, hoping for, waiting for a fish. Catching is actually getting the little buggers. My buddy Jed says he gets bored fishing. Come to Pana buddy, you won't get bored.

I like to call our place the "Lake House". Or, when I really want to impress "The Lake Property". Carol is a pragmatic farm girl, she calls it the "trailer". No matter, I love it. There are times when I can't sleep and stressful thoughts of business fill my head and I toss and turn. Then I turn my mind to the cabin. (There, that's a good compromise). We had a screened in deck built on the back. It's about 12x20 and we furnish it with comfy deck furniture. I think about sitting there, a cool breeze flowing through, the screen keeping all the pesky Illinois bugs away, and looking out across our green and peaceful cove. The wind moves the surface of the water a little causing gentle ripples and once in a while a small circle appears where a fish has surfaced to snack on a white fly. You listen to the wind in the trees and troubles melt away. Once in a while it may even start to sprinkle. One of those light refreshing rains that cleanses everything and makes all the green greener and everything new. And, I look down at our boat dock and I think about taking a rod down and trying my luck under the overhanging branches of the trees that line our side of the cove. But cooler heads prevail and I decide to light a cigar, fix a cocktail and sit and enjoy God's gift for a while.

For a view of the lake from the deck go to my website, samleejackson.com and look at my painting "Jessie Rows". That is what I look at from my perch on the deck. Excuse me, I know I'm early but I have to go pack now.