Chat GPT Meets MarkerQuest

I missed last week's post for the same reason I literally forgot to send out a newsletter for February - I was hit hard with a stomach bug (not Norovirus, thankfully, but still not fun) and just didn't have the spoons. 

It's been a very topsy-turvy February, not least because this weather is driving me crazy. My longtime readers know that snow and similar conditions are not kind to me, and there's been quite a bit of that. On the bright side, the Eagles won the Super Bowl, and on the even brighter side, my sister got married. Congratulations, Liza and Taylor!

I'm working on a real post for this week, which should be going up by tomorrow morning - I'm juggling a lot of things this week, more than usual. But to make up for last week's absence, I've got something very unusual for you today. I'm no great lover of artificial intelligence; I'm one of those people who says thank you to her Amazon Echo, because when the machines finally take over I want them to remember that I was polite to them. However, this morning I saw that one of the content creators I follow on Facebook had invited ChatGPT to roast her social media accounts, and the results were hilarious. I didn't know this was a thing, but it is.

You see where this is going. I had to ask it to roast my blog. I put it under a jump cut for those who would rather wait for actual MQ content, but if you'd like to see what gave me a good chuckle, I hope you enjoy it.

Silver Spring Presbyterian Church, Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County

The temperatures are above freezing. I even heard a rumor that we could exceed 40 degrees tomorrow, which after last week feels like a prospective heat wave.

This is one of those blog posts that I have sincerely looked forward to writing ever since I collected the marker. But I knew it was going to be one that required a lot of attention and care, because of the sheer amount of information that was available just at the site alone, and I've been saving it for a week when I could devote myself to it properly. 

It seems that this is the week. So join me for a trip back in time almost three hundred years, to meet some of the Cumberland Valley's earliest European transplants and to visit what must be one of the loveliest and most historic churches in the commonwealth. My apologies to my mobile readers, because this one will be a little heavy on the images. As always, you can click on any image to see a bigger version of it.

Shippen House, Lancaster, Lancaster County

The polar vortex continues to plague me. But in just under two months I'll be making my annual return to Lancaster, one of my favorite cities, to participate in my beloved Zenkaikon. For four days (well, three and a half) I'll be regaling my fellow nerds with tales of Lancaster's historic past and spooky legends. I'm also going to be involved with this year's charity auction - there's a slight chance I'll be the one with the microphone, but more likely I'll be walking around showing off the items up for bid like a less glamorous Vanna White.

Well, as you can probably guess, my mind is wandering the streets of Lancaster as I continue with my preparations. I'm not particularly nervous, since for some weird reason I enjoy public speaking, but I am anxious that everything is ready and as good as I can make it. My to-do list before the convention is even more extensive than at other times of the year. So as long as I've got the Red Rose City on the brain anyway, I figure we might as well talk a bit more about the history in this week's blog post. Today's subject has a connection with some of the most famous - and one of the most infamous - names from the American Revolution.

Hummelstown Brownstone Quarries, Hummelstown, Dauphin County

Happy New Year! This post was meant to go up much sooner, but the year has been off to a bit of a wonky start for multiple reasons, including my husband being sick and me struggling with pain issues due to the polar vortex temperatures. (Danged arthritis and sinus headaches.) But I made it through another holiday season in retail with my sanity mostly intact and my hair only a little more gray than it already was, so I'm taking the wins where I can find them. And given how truly awful January has already been for some parts of the country and the world, that's really all any of us can do. 

Meanwhile, we've still got plenty of Pennsylvania history to uncover in the coming year, so we might as well get started. As you may remember, I had a marvelous day exploring in Dauphin County last summer with my college friend AmyBeth, and this is the second of the two Hummelstown markers. Besides, it's so bitterly cold and windy here lately that it does me a bit of good to remember that hot July afternoon.

2024 Retrospective, 2025 Plans

How on earth is the century about to turn 25? That just... doesn't feel right.

Well, here we are again. Time to look back at the highs and lows of this blog (and its little sister) during the past twelve months.

The Pennsylvania Chautauqua, Mount Gretna, Lebanon County

Important update from my post about Smithfield Church - the fire on Blue Mountain is out! Our entire community is deeply grateful to all of the fire companies who helped to bring the disaster to an impressive end - no one was injured and there was no property damage, apart from several hundred acres of trees. Hopefully it recovers quickly. Meanwhile, additional thanks to everyone who contributed in some way to the relief effort, as our home company was truly overwhelmed by the generosity. Even the visiting representatives from FEMA were astonished by the community response.

I'm still doing my best here to try to get the blogs caught up, but it's a slow process. I keep an awful lot of balls in the air at one time, and then sometimes life randomly tosses in a chainsaw or two. I appreciate the patience and the words of support I've received from many of you!

Kevin and I were at a meeting of my beloved White Rose Irregulars this past Saturday, where I talked for a little while about the family tree of Sherlock Holmes. Public speaking might be the greatest fear of a lot of people, but it honestly doesn't bother me very much at all; I quite enjoy it, even though I'm not overly fond of the sound of my own voice. After the meeting, we detoured off of the road home to collect today's marker - I found the subject so interesting, both visually and historically, that I had to make it the focus of this week's post because I couldn't wait to share it with all of you.

Smithfield Church, Shawnee, Monroe County

October disappeared while I was looking the other way, it seems. Even without touching on the election or its results, the back half of 2024 has been frankly dizzying for me. I sure am happy to not be getting any more spam texts, though.

Of particular note, for the last several days the mountain behind my house has been on fire. It's far enough away (about five miles) that I haven't been in any danger, but it's been a big enough issue that we have at least a dozen fire companies, all or nearly all volunteers, working together to fight the blaze. It's burned just under 600 acres of woodland, though they do believe they have it contained now. The community has rallied around our firefighters - seriously, I'm so proud of everyone for contributing water and snacks and supplies, to the point that the local fire company had to ask people to stop bringing donations because they have no more space to store it all. If you would like to contribute to the effort, what Lehigh Township's fire company needs now is money to replace equipment and things like that, so they do accept donations via Squaresite at this link. (The fire is situated in Lehigh Township, so they've been leading the operation.) Alternately, consider contributing to your own local fire company, because I'm sure they can always use more support.

At the very least, please pay attention to burn bans. It's believed this was all started by a campfire, which no one had any business building when the entire commonwealth is in a severe drought. (We haven't had any measurable rainfall in my area since the middle of September!)

Meanwhile, I'm trying to keep on top of the blog in between all the other madness. It's not easy, but I dearly love my blogs so it's important to me. So let's kick off November with a trip to scenic Monroe County, to a spot where a church is believed to have once stood.