That’s strike rat.

It’s a rally to support Post Gazeete workers. They’ve been on strike now for 100 days.

Here’s a link to their strike fund for anyone interested in throwing a few bucks their way to help out.

A very doable one is citywide composting.

Twisted Frenchman and Seasons have closed, but Morcilla and Fl. 2 are still open.

I would second, third, and fourth the suggestion of Morcilla. It’s wonderful small plates.

edit: Umami is still open as well and was also mentioned in that thread.

discussed recently here

Cool, hopefully someone who lives around there can chime in with more specifics.

I think trash and recycling are included with your local taxes there (same as in the City), so that’s a small relief.

What suburb? And what’s the house like?

Costs are going to vary depending on location, the age of the house, square footage, age of HVAC, etc, but I think your costs are going to be pretty close to what you’re paying now.

You might save a few bucks on trash depending on where you land, but in general utilities aren’t at a discount here and they’re only going up.

Pennsylvania Resources Council now runs hazardous household chemical and e-waste recycling for the City. They have household chemical collections coming up and take old fuel. There is a small fee, but it’s not too bad and you know it will properly disposed of that way.

You can read more about and sign up here.

yesterday

Are you in the City of Pittsburgh? Animal Control has an emergency line for after hours calls: 412-255-2935

If you’re not in Pittsburgh proper, your municipality might also have an emergency line.

ACHD also has an emergency line 412-687-2243. They have someone on-call to answer 24/7, including holidays.

You might have to demand from Animal Control that the bat get tested, but you definitely want it to be tested. If there is any chance the bat was in your house while you were sleeping and/or you handled the bat and it is positive to rabies, you should have a post-exposure rabies vaccine.

Our air quality problems disproportionately affect marginalized communities. You’d know that if you had lived here for more than a few months. Great to know you’re able to open your windows, but other people aren’t and have been having this same problem for years. Talking about it with such a narrow view makes you look dumb and mean.

If that’s the way you want to present yourself, please, continue.

It’s a scam. They’ll try to lure you into a conversation and then they’ll ask you for money.

Most places that are still doing PCR testing require you to fill in your info before booking/seeing appointment times, but there is generally a lot of availability because there is a low demand for tests.

Places like Walgreens/Rite Aid/Quest/Labcorp are now offering at-home PCR tests that you just pick up and drop off.

This place offers same day PCR and you can see appointments without having to fill out a form.

You can also order at-home molecular tests (PCR-like) from Lucira and Cue.

Dems removed all the Covid funding from the latest government spending bill, despite requests from Biden to leave it in. Unless something else is done to provide additional Covid funds, vaccines, treatments (Paxlovid, etc), and testing that are currently free will go completely to the commercial market at some point in 2023 and everyone (or their insurance) will have to pay out of pocket. That will make it even harder to find or afford a PCR test.

Fuck, sorry. Good idea getting your neighbors to call too though. Hopefully that will do something.

I’d suggest also reaching out to your city councilperson (if you’re in Bloomfield it’s probably Deb Gross) and county councilperson, at least to let them know the Health Department shit the bed if nothing else.

Highly recommend Neighborhood Legal Services and hopefully someone else can chime in with more legal recs.

Call the health department first thing tomorrow morning. Your landlord is required to provide heat by law. The Health Department will help you.

Allegheny County Health Department - Housing Division (412) 350-4046

Maybe try Benjamin Franklin Plumbing or Matt Mertz? Just trying to think of big plumbers who offer emergency service.

Sorry. That sucks.

And because Google exists, I’m guessing

The War on Christmas continues.

Brick and built in 1936, there’s a chance you have little to no insulation in your walls and/or attic. It can take a lot of energy to keep a leaky home in the mid-60s.

It could also be your boiler depending on the age, but I’m guessing it’s more the lack of insulation (and possibly the windows).

Also, 1600 square feet but only 2 bedrooms? Do you have a sun room or an addition? That could be a potential draft source as well.

Yeah, they do this all the time. It's supposed to be more personal and an attempt to get you to connect and open to up to them.

Ok, you said you had been searching for an answer for 20 years and you said yourself that you’ve had a string of therapists who haven’t helped. So you’re what, just looking for more recommendations for people who will fail you? You didn’t come here being like I’m new to therapy and am looking for a good therapist.

That clinic could be a solution. It’s not a judgment. And that clinic is full of. . .wait for it. . .therapists! They may refer you to a specific therapist or suggest an approach that could help you.

It’s frustrating that your first instinct is that you can try the same thing over and over again and expect different results. There isn’t one magic person out there who is necessarily going to make you better, it might take a multifaceted approach. I don’t know why you’d close yourself off to help that might—what’s the word I’m looking for here—oh yeah, help.

My friend, you are describing exactly what that clinic does.

So it’s a team of people instead of just one? Who cares?

Depression, like many other mental illnesses, come in a spectrum. It can be occasionally noticeable to debilitating every day. It varies a lot. Talk therapy may be a fine intervention by itself for folks at one end of the spectrum, but not the other. It may be a good intervention in conjunction with other treatments (trauma therapy, behavioral therapy, etc.)

Just because you may need something else, doesn’t mean therapists can’t ever treat depression.

Sounds to me like you need interventions beyond what a typical therapist can give, which is why you may not be getting what you need.

AHN has a center for Treatment Resistant Depression. I haven't had experience with them myself, but the fact that this clinic exists and seems to give patients access to a team of doctors that practice all kinds of different treatments seems like a good sign. It might be a good place to start at least without entering a residential program.

Sometimes it just takes getting in front of enough different kinds of professionals to identify the root of what is going on.

What exactly are you looking for as a “treatment”?

Finding the right therapist can absolutely make a huge difference, but ultimately talk therapy can only do so much. It’s much more of a management process than a curative one. At some point, you need to look at other modalities or meds.

Sorry about your knee.

Fairly certain AHN offers same day specialty appointments, including orthopedics. In my experience sometimes same day means more like same week, but that’s still better than different month. I’d call (412) DOCTORS and see if they have anything available.

You can also try the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex in the South Side. Huge facility and they can usually get you in pretty quickly.

Regardless, stress to whoever you talk to the difficulty walking and how it’s getting worse not better. Hope someone’s able to take a look at it soon.