This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Life (Lately)

Damian Morris brings us up to speed on the Giants, voting and Halloween hijinxs.

First off, congratulations to the . Their victory has caused . The long wait has ended. I remember catching many mid 1980s day games at "The Stick," with maybe 5,000 in attendance. Those days are gone.  By the way, did the San Mateo-Foster City School District experience an unexpected spike in absenteeism Wednesday? Responsible parents wouldn't pull their kids out of school , would they? Of course not!

Over the years, . I recall a Kirk Reuter sighting at Bridgepointe Shopping Center several years back. Technically that's San Mateo, but hey, I consider it part of Foster City. I think the Giants need to sign youngsters Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey to long term contracts. Then I can introduce them to some of the Foster City realtors that send me notepads and gewgaws in the mail. I'd make a great neighbor for the boys.

I stopped by Tuesday to cast my ballot. It's unlikely I'll get into politics too often in my column. I want to preserve the double digit readership I've worked so hard to acquire. I pulled up on Gull and saw the sign directing voters to enter on Crane. That's something new for me. but school was in session so it makes sense. When I parked, I noticed the new drop off area on Crane. It may have been there for a while but I guess I don't get down that way too often. It didn't exist when my kids were going to Audubon, but we're lucky to live so close that the kids could walk home. Before I went into the polling place, I did a good turn by retrieving a ball and tossing it back to the grade schoolers who were playing in the yard. I was then off to do my civic duty at the which  is always a pleasure because it is staffed with affable and knowledgeable volunteers.

Our neighborhood had a good . I usually help pass out the candy but I was tied up with game four of the World Series, so my daughter took over the duties. I got a few ideas for the holiday from watching The Late Show with David Letterman. He had a caulk gun that he squirted into trick or treater's bags and also had an open pumpkin from which he scooped a handful of guts. Maybe a few of the older kids would have gotten the joke, but as I said, I was safely sequestered in my room watching the game.

Although we live in a suburban oasis, we still have our share of wildlife. I've seen a deer in the headlights more than once on Gull Avenue. And the racoons love my trash. I've secured the cans with bungee cords to no avail. I recently put a touch of bleach in the garbage bags to see if that would put them off the scent. If anyone has any good ideas to ward them off, please send me an email. 

Find out what's happening in Foster Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

And don't be afraid to be candid, e.g. "Hey Damian, your column stinks but I can help you with your racoon problem." I went out to get my newspaper yesterday and noticed that the sample of the LU "chic little biscuit" had been gotten to. I think it was an animal. My neighbors are pretty reasonable people and I don't think they would have left the empty wrapper in my driveway.

Hey folks, I need some more ideas for future columns.  I'm thinking for the next one I'll take a tour of Foster City parks and report on my findings.  Maybe I'll eavesdrop on a few conversations.  Isn't that how Herb Caen did it?  If I really want to emulate Herb I'll have to find a few watering holes to haunt.  There's not too many bars in our town, but that's pretty much a good thing.  Maybe I'll head over to for some of Caen's Vitamin V this week and see what's up there. 

But back to the parks.  We have some lovely ones here and my family has taken full advantage of them.  We've caught the Fourth of July fireworks from several times.  We now have friends that live on the water, with a boat, so we've gone there for the event the last few years. If you have a boat, I'll be your friend too. The closest park to my house is Turnstone. It's a hidden gem that my daughter used to call the "secret park." However, at that time her language was just developing so when she said it, it sounded like "cigarette park."  It probably is just that for nearby smokers who've been banned by their spouses from smoking in the home.

Find out what's happening in Foster Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?