Monday. I was so tired yesterday that I lay down a little before seven in the evening thinking that I would likely just take a nap. Instead, I slept for fifteen hours, not waiting up until late this morning! That is, as far as I know, the longest that I have slept continuous for my entire adult life and possible all of my adolescence. I have no memory of ever passing thirteen hours, and even getting past eight happens no more than once or twice a year! This is unprecedented, but I am certainly the sickest that I can remember being as an adult, except for that whole pesky appendicitis thing, which was almost exactly twenty years ago.
The girls are both sick today, both with fevers. They definitely caught what we caught. Luciana spent the entire day in bed, she never got up. Liesl camped out on the couch in the living room with the Grim Legends hidden object video game trilogy and played it for the entire day completed multiple of the games (some more than once!)
Dad was doing all kinds of familial research and has discovered that my six times great grandfather, David Diffenderfer, served as an ensign in the Revolutionary War, was at Valley Forge, and crossed the Delaware River at Trenton with George Washington. He also fought at the battles of Princeton and Monmouth, having been injured at the latter. Once recovered from that battle he re-entered the Army and was captured at the Battle of Long Island.
David’s father’s father (John M. Diffenderfer), I believe, who would be my eighth great grandfather, has also been recognized as the founder of New Holland, Pennsylvania. He arrived there in 1728, predating most of my formerly known Swiss immigrant family from the Bern side.
Dad was able to trace that line of the family (which is through my mother’s father’s father’s mother’s side) all the way back to the outskirts of Zurich in 1130 to the patriarch Werver von Dubeldorf. It is unknown if my family is named for the suburb that they are from, or if the suburb is named after us. Dubeldorf is near the Zurich Zoo, just east of downtown.
This evening Liesl climbed onto the couch with us in our bedroom and we watching Paddington which I have been wanting to watch for a while. I had the book (audio, if I remember correctly) as a child and liked the story of Paddington Bear. The movie has a good cast and looked like it would be good, and it was. I enjoyed it a lot, as did Liesl. It was nice to have some snuggle time with nothing to do. Luciana watched some of it, but was not all that into it.
Got to bed on the early side tonight. Still have a lot of rest to go before my body is going to be able to effectively fight off this influenza.