I was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Feb. 22, 1949, but moved to California when I was three. I grew up in San Lorenzo in the East Bay (a San Francisco Bay Area suburb) and attended Arroyo High School from 1963-to-1967. Then I entered San Jose State, experienced the 60s, and eventually graduated with a degree in English in 1975 from Sonoma State College, where I met my wife Mary. We've been living together since April 26, 1975, and been married since April 24, 1982.

I spent a year in graduate school and two years working in nondescript office jobs before discovering journalism accidentally. It was a good profession for someone who is sarcastic, cynical and thinks he might have been a wolf (or more likely a dog) in an earlier life. But I eventually tired of journalism, couldn't get along with management, and decided to pursue a new challenge late in 2002.

I started my reporting career in September 1979 and worked as either a news reporter or editor in Rohnert Park for the Rohnert Park-Cotati Times (now defunct), the Delano Record in the Southern San Joaquin Valley, the Five Cities Times-Press-Recorder in Arroyo Grande and the San Luis Obispo County Tribune, the county's major daily. I left The T Sept. 5, 2002.

I have since been the government affairs director for the Home Builders Association of the Central Coast. I am probably a good example of why some people pursue and enjoy second careers. I did not realize until I left journalism how stale I had become and how little I was growing as a person and professional. Starting anew has forced me to be more willing to adapt and change, a process that never seems to end.

As the government affairs director, I am a media contact, spokesperson, governmental liaison, researcher and have a few other tasks. Lobbying is a different animal. I give speeches, write letters, keep members informed and get information for them, try to educate government officials who already think they know-it-all and really know next to nothing about the areas they regulate such as housing, and I try to help good candidates get elected to office. I get e-mail at work at jbunin@hbacc.org.

In addition to a great relationship with Mary, my life is enriched by great pets, three cats and two dogs. The photo above on the right is in our backyard with Cherokee and Dakota, the day he arrived in our pack. The photo on the immediate right will always be among favorites. Former Five Cities Times-Press-Recorder photographer Jim Miner shot it unbeknownst to me while my golden retriever, Rags, and I were enjoying one of our daily jogs on Pismo Beach.

I stopped running on the beach because government bureaucrats and environmentalists decided dogs can't run free on a beach where cars are allowed to drive. My longtime companion, Rags, passed beyond the rim in May 1998 and will always be missed no matter how great all my dogs are. I ran on the streets for years with Dusty, Apache, Cherokee and Dakota before they got too old and we walked instead. I continued walking with them, but started going to a gym daily for more strenuous exercise.

In my minimal spare time, I read a lot mostly about the American West and U.S. history in general and see many movies. Here is Ally helping me read by refusing to move and not letting me move in our sunroom chair. Mary and I do not go out to the theater much anymore. It has become too expensive, the advertising too noisy, and Netflix and "On Demand" makes viewing at home too convenient.

My wife and I share a philosophy we call the slime-and-grime school of thinking: don't expect fate to care much about the human condition, be responsible for yourself and make the most you can out of life because this is all there is. That attitude probably accounts for why I'm big fan of film noir and like reading novels about life on the downbeat.