Go on the bus

It is as though I've been cut loose, set adrift after years at anchor.

I'm sitting on the ground, leaning against the No. 82 bus stop light pole at the 65th Street transit center. I've just arrived on the outbound train and I have 20 minutes to kill before the next bus home.

Years ago -- I am unable to say exactly how long, perhaps a decade or more -- I regularly played the Asian board game Go. Every night I played a game or two on the Internet and then each week I would drive to Davis and play with members of the Davis Sacramento Go Club at Cafe Roma.

Don't recall exactly why I stopped playing. The trips to Davis were the first to end. That was just too much of an indulgence, even in an era of pre-$2 gasoline. And then I stopped playing on the Internet. It was taking up too much time.

And then I found myself without a job and playing Go again.

When I checked the Go club's Web site, I discovered that not only do the members now gather Mondays in Sacramento, but they meet from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Natural Foods Co-Op at Alhambra and S streets. From a transitarian perspective, that couldn't be better.

Tonight I took the No. 82 to the 65th Street light rail station and then rode the train to 29th Street. It's hardly two blocks to the co-op.

It was fun playing games in person, rather than on the Internet. I embarrassed myself in my first game, won the next two and then was schooled by a young 7-don player who was kind enough to tell me I played well, but a little too cautiously.

At 9:06, the No. 82 rolled into the transit center. I put away my notebook and boarded the bus for the ride home. It was a nice outing and it didn't require a car.