Editor's Notes: Bee die-off an important problem

Bees are amazing creatures. That's all there is to it. They're neat to look at; they're beautiful to watch.

I'm the son of an old beekeeper; Dad always had hives in the yard and here and there out and around the county. When a swarm would settle into someone's attic or under the eaves of some business downtown, they would call Dad to come and get them.

Small time — my Dad's bee addiction was to full-scale professional beekeeping as is gardening to farming. Still, you come to love bees.

And sympathize.

It concerns me that bee populations are plummeting and that keepers are having so much trouble keeping colonies alive, as reported in an Associated Press story and localized by Michael Hatamiya on the Farm page last Sunday.

What is going on now that wasn't going on a few decades ago? It can't all be colony collapse disorder; it can't all be pesticides (we're guessing there is less threat from that now than years gone by). How about year-round forage? As we build out our cities with houses and lawns, and become more and more efficient at farming every bit that's left, are we leaving enough for bees to survive on? Just guessing.

It's an important problem. Just ask any beekeeper … or orchardist … or son of an old beekeeper.

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National Dress in Blue Day is not a well-known event, but it's meant to bring focus to an important issue and one that we generally don't want to talk about: it kicks off National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. According to the full-page sponsored ad in Friday's paper, it's important to get people to talk about the importance of colon cancer screening. The message was that all adults over 50 should get regular colon cancer checks.

My doctor tells me it's important to get a physical at my age every year, but they're not recommending colonoscopies as frequently as they used to. Still, consult your doc. And if you're due for the big checkup, the one we all refer to in undertones and with grimaces, don't worry so much. It's not that bad — inconvenient the day before, maybe … but not as inconvenient as having cancer or other serious problems going undetected. And (grimace and whisper) the day of the actual event? Best nap you'll ever have.

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Yuba City High School student Meliah Triplett was named by the Yuba City High School baseball guys as the Team Sweetheart. There were hugs and flowers and lots of smiles. By all reports it made the day — and for more than just a day — of the high school student with Down syndrome.

We're proud of the team members for knowing that she is special, but acting like it's no big deal, but at the same time treating her to something special … Way to go, guys.

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To Rio Oso resident Chelsea Scheiber. As reported by Griffin Rogers a couple of weeks ago, she left college a decade ago to come home and care for her mother and her brother. She is still putting family first, caring for Travis Scheiber, who has Becker muscular dystrophy — an inherited disorder that causes slowly progressive muscle weakness of the legs and pelvis. She was recently honored for her caregiving.

A reminder ofour smallness

Most of us have been somehow affected by some sort of natural disaster: Floods, quakes, terrible storms. And we humans have spent a good portion of the time that makes up our history here on Earth figuring out ways to prevent the effects of nature or mitigating them as quickly as possible. Really big things still play with us and our buildings and things like toys, but we get better and better at coming in and putting things back together.

Then, nature changes up. It was on the other side of the world, week before last, but it fascinated all of us: An SUV-sized meteor comes screaming into earth atmosphere and the sonic effects damage thousands of buildings and injure a thousand people with flying chards of glass.

We empathize; but it seems like it might be a beneficial thing to be reminded, now and again, that we are such small and puny things.