Today is the day :(

Today is the day I have dreaded for months. It's the final Phantoms regular season home game at the Spectrum.

And I do mean DREAD. As in, the Paul Simon song whose lyrics begin with, "April, come she will" saddened me when I heard it, because I knew the end of the season was in April.

Regardless of whether we clinch a playoff berth in the next two days, I am extremely depressed to witness the end of an era in my life. For 13 years I have derived a tremendous amount of enjoyment from attending Phantoms games. There have been times during those years when I was feeling so down, nothing much else could lift my spirits or get me going, and yet even through THAT I would look forward to Phantoms games.

So, playoffs or not, I know that this season is the last season, this game is the final regular season home game, and something I've set great store by for over a decade is coming to an abrupt and unwanted end in my life. And I feel a stupendous amount of grief for that loss.

So if I'm not quite myself in the immediate future, I apologize in advance and I will do my best not to take it out on the rest of the universe. But I feel as awful right now as I've ever felt after a bereavement. No exaggeration.

This post is going to both my regular blog and the Phantoms blog, as IMO it's relevant to both.