Sick

Everybody in the house is sick. Have been for at least a week. Nothing serious, just a common, very annoying cold. Which makes me wonder, what exactly is a cold? Guess I should look it up, but to show how stupid I am I’ll guess first. Common symptoms include runny or stuffy nose, coughing, sneezing, sore throat, and headache. No fever, because if you’re running a fever it’s called a fever, not a cold (there’s a duh sentence for you). So is it viral or bacterial? It’s viral, but I cheated. I looked. Courtesy of mayoclinic.com:

Causes

Although more than 200 viruses can cause a common cold, the rhinovirus is the most common culprit, and it's highly contagious.

A cold virus enters your body through your mouth or nose, but it's likely you also had a "hand" in your own illness. The virus can spread through droplets in the air when someone who is sick coughs, sneezes or talks. But it also spreads by hand-to-hand contact with someone who has a cold or by using shared objects, such as utensils, towels, toys or telephones. Touch your eyes, nose or mouth after such contact or exposure, and you're likely to "catch" a cold.

This certainly helps explain why every cold rips through our household unabated. With twin two-and-a-half-year-old boys, hell yeah there are shared objects, hand-to-hand contact, sneezing and coughing all over the place. This one started with Roark, and I quickly followed. I’ve been sick for over a week now. This is my second or third cold this year, which is pretty uncommon for me. I guess that’s one of the joys of having young kids. Colds are so freakin’ annoying. I hate headaches, sore throats, runny noses, all that crap. Who doesn’t? Give me a fever any day. I actually like the chills and aches that come along with that, as long as that’s all I get. It’s a good feeling to stretch out under several layers of covers, warming up while letting the aches drift away. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to get a fever this year, but for now I’m stuck with these damn colds.