The grass has riz.

Finally got to give the lawn its first cut. Hauled ol' Black Beauty out of the garage and she started on the first pull. At least, the first pull after I remembered to reconnect the spark plug.

Here's the problem, because there's always a problem: Parts of the lawn overgrew very quickly this spring, and while my mower would take my hand right off my wrist, the thick, wet grass was a real challenge. I knew this would happen, but up until yesterday, whenever I had the time to do it we had rain; whenever the sky was clear I had no time. So now I'm using this little mower to cut damp grass six inches thick. So we kept stalling, over and over.

There was no way to get the grass dry enough to make the job easier. In fact, it rained last night after I finished. The only thing that helped at all was using the string trimmer to shorten it in the worst spots, as my neighbor suggested, which I hated to try because he's a pessimist. And it did help a bit, but it was still Stall City all morning. This same kind of situation doomed Black Beauty's predecessor, Mellow Yellow, which never recovered from a sodden late September swamp mow.

Fortunately, or really unfortunately, the grass doesn't grow in that thick in most places on the lawn. My lawn's like a guy going bald, real thin in main stretches, real thick on the sides, hair coming out the ears. It was only in certain spots, dog-fertilized in some regards, that I had a problem.

And it is a luxury problem. No question. I'm grateful I have a lawn mower. I'm grateful I have a lawn. I'm grateful I have a house in the midst of the lawn. I'm grateful I have a dog, even one that keeps getting green feet now, with all the damp grass clippings. It's all okay.

Now we're on to the new problem anyway -- recovering the ol' muscles that hadn't been used since October. You know you're getting up there when you keep your wholesale club membership just because you can get the big double-pack of Advil Liqui-Gels.