The bio-hazard in my backyard

I always imagined finding something really cool buried somewhere.  Money, a time capsule, or something else equally awesome.  I'm not that lucky.  Seriously, I'm not.

A little over a week ago I set to weed my backyard (a little ambitious, but I was feeling strangely motivated at the time).  I saw something plastic buried in the backyard, so I started digging it out.  At one point I was actually optimistic about what I would find.

Nothing good.  Nothing fun.  Absolutely nothing worth finding in your backyard.

I found two full sharps containers full of used needles and probably at least a hundred loose ones below the containers.  SIGH.

My roommate came out.  I acquiesced and stopped digging.  We called the non-emergency police number.  The fire department came to check it out.

I stood there more in disbelief than anything else.  This house-buying experience is one or two stories away from being book-writing worthy.  One of the firemen said I looked familiar.... probably because I seem to interact with the police/fire department/etc. much more regularly than necessary.  At least I'm getting a return on the money I have been paying into city services.

The fire department couldn't take the containers.  They told me that it was officially a "bio-hazard".   They gave me the number of Dept of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to contact.  That journey involved numerous phone calls, more digging in my backyard, the purchase of several sharps containers from Walgreens to contain the loose needles (P.S. I felt like a druggie at this point), handling those dumb needles at least four times each, and a mid-morning pick-up from an environmental waste company. 

My bio-hazard is officially gone.  Thank goodness.

The picture of a garden always seems most fitting when you talk about weeding out the trouble areas in life, pulling those issues out by the roots so they don't strangle the "good-plant's" growth.  I couldn't help but think of the applicable analogy with my lovely sharpes containers.

With enough motivation to weed all day long, I set out to weed the garden.  I found something that I knew didn't belong, so I started digging it up.  It turned out to be something that didn't belong in the garden at all.  Something I couldn't avoid.  Something I couldn't just cover up and forget about.  I had to dig it up, I had to call and find out what to do with it, I had to be proactive.  It was a lot of work.  A lot of energy.  A lot of unnecessary frustration, but for my garden to be healthy, it had to be done.

Sometimes I disillusion myself into believing that the only thing I need to do is find that container and all is well.  Except, once you find that place you have to dig it up completely and remove all the vestiges.  This is no time to be halfhearted.  There is more effort and hard-work required in dealing with the problem than in finding it. 

A good reminder for the healing process.