Czech Roofs .... follow-up from an earlier post

A friend of mine who lives in a small town outside of Prague city limits... recently wrote me the following related to my post some weeks ago about the difference between Czech roofs... and American roofs. Here are her comments:

Hi Scott,

A couple weeks ago I saw on your blog the article about Czech and American roofs and you mention there that you don't know how the Czech roof tiles are fixed, you supposed that there were some nails used - not at all! The typical Czech roof is composed of a roof frame from strong wooden rafters then insulation is wrapped and then wooden laths. The distance of laths must respect the dimensions of tiles because tiles are not fixed by anything, they keep by their own weight. They have on the back side a protrusion by which they are affixed to the lath.

You usually start with the lowest row of tiles and the upper tiles are partly laid over the lower ones. You continue this way up to the top where in one row special "ridge" tiles are used. Only this one top row is fixed, originally by mortar, now special ridge roof adhesive exists.

The advantage of these roofs is that in case some tiles are damaged/broken you can easily change them. The lifetime of standard fired pottery tiles is very long (about 100 years), so you can see here that if somebody demolishes the old house, the tiles are kept for another construction.

Thank you Eva.... this was great. I appreciated you sending me more information and correct information about how Czech roofs are built. Dekuju moc, a uvidim te brzo.
Cau a pa pa.

PS: This is a photo that Eva sent to show the Lathing on the roof that is getting tiled. zase, dik.

The Whole Family showed up

This past weekend...
where do you think... my back yard.

Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene failed to be the apocalyptic, big-city disaster scenario that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had spelled out late last week, ( These words from the Associated Press.

but the storm still managed to leave 5 million homes and businesses without power and at least two dozen dead along the Eastern seaboard and massive flooding, road closures and damage. It did cause the worst flooding to the state of Vermont in over 100 years.

Rochester got some wind, but no rain, as we got only the very light edge of this storm after it had already hit land, some two days earlier.

Typical American Bus ( Autobus)

The Typical American Bus. This one was captured driving through Fairport last Tuesday nite. Just in case you were interested.

Town Hall

Looking up...

Church Steeple

..on Church Street

Fairport Main Fire House

This shot is of the Main Fire Station in Fairport. Four main engines, and two bays for two smaller versions. There is another Four bay Station on the other side of Town. The reason for the two: Train tracks and a Canal separate the town, and to be safe in case of disaster, there is an identical set of trucks.

Summer Thistle

I am just not finding Photos I wish to post ;-(

One big difference here vs. Living in Prague, has to do with Images I wish to Capture.

I have had a hard time finding photos I wish to capture, much less post.

In Prague, I would take hundreds of pictures a week. Here, well, the difference is
I am not excited about taking photos.

Hence, you see gaps in my posts. I mean how many pictures of deer and America's Passion, the automobile, do you want to see.

So, my posting is sporadic currently. As Fall arrives I know I will find some colorful Autumn sights I will wish my friends in Prague to see. For now, bear with me.

I will try to post a few posts a week and hope that you stay tuned.

Over the weekend

..I went to a car show which featured cars built in the UK.

A nice show with lots of classic British sports cars.

The Red one above is my brothers; a 1973 TR6

Happy Name Day Petra

As I told you, I would never forget. Cheers a Všechno nejlepší.

More Music this evening...

from the "Girl Group", Its My Party. Their last concert of the summer in Fairport.
and the 2nd to the last Car Show in the village for the Summer of 2011. Time Flys.
But a beautiful evening, about 75 F, sunshine, great music and enjoyed the evening with a couple of good friends.

A great day....

....workin' again.

and Today: My Father's Name Day: Alan.

and it was my name day as well, since my first name, although I do not formally use it, is Alan.

So Happy Name to Me...

and to my Dad as well...

and Happy Birthday once again Dad.

Happy Birthday Father !!

Happy Birthday Son !!

Wow, my son turns 28 today.
Holy Moly!
Where does the time go?

Happy Birthday Bud.
Enjoy the Day !
Lets grab a Brew as well... ( sometime )
What ever you wish...

Fools on the Hill (Capital Hill)

If you want to understand the magnitude of the recent debt and budget reduction actions agreed to by Congress and the President, this non-partisan example really puts it in perspective:

U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)

Now, It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to. Therefore, let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family:

Total annual income for the Jones family: $ 21,700
Amount of money the Jones family spent: $ 38,200
Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $ 16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Amount cut from the budget: $ 385

Like I said: Washington is FULL of FOOLS!
Maybe a more appropriate term: Idiots.

McCafé

Saturday at the Festival was the First time I ever saw anything labeled: McCafé.

Something new brewing by McDonalds. A Café? !

...I think not. I could never go there. It is NOT a REAL café. But they are trying to gain some Market share from Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and the small=Town Coffee Shops. http://www.mccafecoffee.com/

This McCafé vehicle was handling out samples of McFruit Smoothies....

Bubble Man

The children love this guy. He makes bubbles all day long with a special wire hoop device... of course, he is selling them as well as packets of Bubble Mix.

He stood on the edge a small park on Park Ave and the kids ran and ran, trying to be the first to break the bubbles before they hit the ground.

Park Ave Arts Festival

Every Year on the first weekend of August, A neighborhood in the City promotes an Art Festival. It has been going on for 20+ years or more. It is now a premier summer event in the City and draws tens of thousands of people. The route is Park Avenue, one of Rochester's more young, artsy and "with-it" neighborhoods. Made up of a high percentage of young 20 and 30 somethings as well as young 60 something ex-hippes.

The entire street is blocked off from traffic and both side of the road are filled with vendors and tents of all shapes and sizes. True Art, Crafts, photography, metal-work, paintings, woodwork, ceramics, pottery, food of all types and descriptions, ice-cream, cotton-candy and I could go on and on...

I met my kids there and we walked the length of Park Ave as we have down together since they were in high school.

Summer Flowers

Found in a Park....

v Praze.

Sunset over the Erie Canal

Small boat by the Bridge

Taking a rest

...then this one laid down for a bit; phew running and playing is hard work!
...it's twin, continued jumping up and down, and running all around...

...like it was possessed.