The common cold...the usual suspects

As I'm pondering how insanely hard it is to take one's temperature when one can't breathe out of one's nose...I was thinking over a conversation I had somewhat recently with my sister.  While everyone (generally) agrees that we can't seem to come up with a cure for the common cold, I've come to realize we really can't figure out the causes of colds either....here are some of the ones that came up in our conversation, and another one or two I threw in for good measure:

1) going outside in the cold with your head wet (see also: going to bed with your hair wet)

2) getting your feet wet while outside in the cold (see also: going barefoot when it's cold...equal time for both ends)

3)going from heated inside air to chilly outside air (I never turn my heater on...so that let's this one out)

4)  sugar (my sister's friend advised her of this theory I have never heard...that people get colds/flu during the holiday season because starting at Halloween and going thru Valentine's Day people are eating a ton of sugar that they normally aren't and it lowers their immune system.  So apparently the daily nickle-sized pieces of chocolatey goodness in my advent calendar are really a plot to make me sick so I boost the economy by buying nasal saline, soup, puffs plus and generic nyquil caps....WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO??? (I'm ok, really I am....)

5)stagnant air (when air conditioners are running, the air is constantly circulating and being filters...assuming you actually change your filter like you're supposed to... so when the weather cools down, the a/c stops running and you are now breathing stagnant air.

102.5...Someone just told me you don't normally get a fever with a cold...but this isn't the flu...and it's not allergies...then what else is it?  By the way...it takes way longer to take your temperature when you have to gasp for breath from your mouth every 20 seconds or so (diminished lung capacity...I'm sick...ok?)

Ah well...back to Nyquil and a blissful night of tossing and turning and blowing my nose 400 times (or however many tissues are in almost 2 boxes of tissues...the boxes don't say...I wonder why that is...so much to ponder, so little brain matter left in my head.)