The Roasting Pans
	Thirty years ago when I moved out here to the Florida swamps and built my Louisiana bayou house / African jungle hut home up on stilts, I felt like I had everything I wanted. The only drawback was that during the stormy, rainy season my long, winding driveway became very muddy. Driving with my four-wheel drive Jeep was no problem however walking in the mud was another story. I'm glad I've since had the driveway raised and limestoned. My boots had grooves on the soles and even walking out to the truck got the bottoms full of mud. I didn't want to track mud everywhere I went so I came up with what Margo so often calls "a typical Lynn Ash invention". I bought two of those flexible, disposable aluminum meat loaf roasting pans. They were perfect! My foot fit right down in each one and I'd fold the four corners over the soles of my boots which held them on nice and snug. I'd wear them out to the truck then take them off and they'd be there when I got home and had to go back to the house wearing them. One day I had to walk down to my mailbox which was all the way down to the road. I folded on my metal mud shoes because a storm was brewing and I knew it would only take minutes for the driveway to become muddy and slippery. As I left the mailbox, starting back toward the house I heard a loud crack of thunder and lightning. Unfortunately, Tampa is the lightning capital of the world with the exception of some small place in, I think the Netherlands or somewhere. The lightning started flashing and striking all around me, one right after the other and me wearing those metal "shoes". It sounded like giant cymbals clashing everywhere as I ran for home as fast as I could. And that was the last time I wore those roasting pans. Lynn Ash