Thomas Hally

About me about us back then and now and again...

Bienvenidos ("Welcome") to my tiny-whiney Website!

JANUARY 17, 2012: CONCEPTS OF INTELLIGENCE  √  

Since 2006: I have occupied my free time as writer of short stories, articles, book reviews, and poems for "The Best Publication Money Can't Buy" in all of Mexico: El Ojo Del Lago. I have also contributed to El Ojo Del Mar of Puerto Vallarta, the Lake Chapala Review and the Spanish-language art and literary publication, Revista Meretrices. My work has been published within the pages of various and sundry magazines from Argentina to Australia and from the UK to the USA. I have won two literary awards for my efforts: one in Spanish and the other in English. 

I joined American Mensa in the early 1980s and have been an active Mensan (on-and-off) since then. I was an enthusiastic reader of San Francisco Regional Mensa's Intelligencer, during the 1980s and a "puzzle addict." My wife and I attended a Mensa RG in Sacramento, California in the mid 1990's. In April of 2007, I was invitated to write for Mensa International Journal. This surpise and honor was extended to me by the MIJ Editor, Kate Nacard. I also edited Telicom, the quartely journal of The International Society for Philosophical Enquiry from November 1st 2007 until March 31st 2010. 

I was born and raised in San Francisco, California. By the mid-1960s, I had found true love - or so I thought! I had fallen "head-over-heels" for a gorgeous strawberry blond named Patricia ("Pat") Brooks. That one-sided romance lasted an entire month. 

1965: I took a six-month break, hitch-hiking around Europe, including an off-continent side trip to Waterford County (Ballyristeen and Bonmahon) in the Republic of Ireland (Éire). I visited my many cousins and worked with them on their farms. I was advised in a letter from my favorite uncle-the one called Sam! - to either get back to my studies or get started marching. So, eventually, I marched...and marched...and marched and.... Then, after a short five-year career as a United States Army infantry enlisted man and officer, I earned a Bachelor’s Degree in History from USF. I later let my hair grow frightfully long; worked as a pizza chef at Joe's Pizza Parlor ("tossing big dough around"-- Sorry!√ I sudied as an autodidact; "hung out" at Enrico's on Broadway and City Lights Bookstore; smoked many-a-Marlboro; drank Italian espressos and "lunched" on Turkish baklava as I wrote triste poetry at the Café Trieste in my beloved City by the Bay. I had transmogrified into a post-Beatnik-post-Hippie-post-Bohemian "entity." 

1976: Tired of the lifestyle I had carelessly, albeit carefully, chosen, I packed my rucksack and headed off again to Madrid for a six-month Iberian sojourn. After my return from Spain and Portugal; and after a brief visit in San Francisco, I moved south to San Diego. Ten months later, I headed even further south to the opposite side of the Río Bravo (Rio Grande) to Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. After two months in the "City of of Eternal Springtime," I moved north to the Federal District (Mexico City). I worked and studied in the Distrito Federal for nearly two years at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, more commonly known as La UNAM.   

December, 1979: my beautiful new (and only!) bride, Guadalupe, and I took an extended honeymoon to England and France. We explored London thoroughly, visting the Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, the SOHO, etc. We got a glimpse of the Royal Palace of "Bushingham," as kindly Portuguese lady identified QE II's and Prince Phillip's "Diggs." And we took a tour of foggy London town by bus and also perused the historic city via the famous London Underground.

In France, while I studied at the Alliance Française each weekday morning and passed my afternoons in class at the Sorbonne, Guadalupe explored the "City of Lights." She observed and drew and painted. She spent many happy hours in le Musée du Louvre and le Centre Georges Pompidou. On New Year's Day 1980, we attended Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral with hundreds of other tourists. Guadalupe and I lived like many French and foreign students on Le Rive Guache; for us it was at the Hôtel San Michel. A short time later, we moved to the picturesque and cozy village of Meudon: "Onze kilometres aux quartiers la grande banlieue ouest du Gare Montparnasse." We continued our academic pursuits in Paris, commuting to and fro' on an almost daily basis.We visited Louis XIV's magnifcent Palace at Versailles, a few kilometers west of Meudon.

We all-too-soon returned to a "normal" lifestyle. Guadalupe began English studies at John Adams Adult School, and I looked for a decent job. In 1982, I worked as a Benefits Claims Authorizer for the United States Social Security Administration near Richmond, California. Later, I worked as a Computer Tape Librarian at the Presidio of San Francisco. I moved on to a more lucrative and challenging job as a Business Computer Programmer for the United States Army Corps of Engineers South Pacific Division. 

1987 - 1989: Guadalupe and I lived in a very chilly town named Bolivar in western New York, located smack dab in the middle of the Allegheny Mountains. We then moved to Sacramento, California, where Lupita studied art and worked as a Spanish tutor and Assistant Computer Lab Technician at Cosumnes River College. I worked nights as a guard at San Francisco County Jail. After "acing" a Civil Service Test, I was handed a 38 caliber and told to pick up a uniform, since I had earned a high-paying job as a bilingual United States Border Patrol agent on the San Ysidro, California - Tijuana, Mexico border. I thanked the interviewers profusely, but respectfully declined, opting for safer-and-saner employment in the private sector. After having worked in government service in five different categories and various other jobs for a total of nearly thirty-five years, I decided to "call it quits." So, I "officially" retired. 

Guadalupe and I have known each other since the beginninmg of 1978 and have been married since June, 1979. We have spent many happy years in both the United States and Mexico. 

2004 - Present: We have been keeping ourselves very busy relaxing in jubilant retirement in southern Jalisco, Mexico. When we are not on the road, we spend our time in Ajijic or ensconced in our nest named, since 2006, Villa San Patricio. Our home is equidistant between the base of the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains and the northern shore of Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest lake. Nena, our perfectly-lady-like white German Shepherd-Keeshond mix,* and Blue, our mucho macho jet black Labrador Retriever, have become our constant companions.

When you come to Ajijic, you will love our fajitas, our pescado, our tacos, our tequila, our climate, our vino our fauna, our flora, our very big and beautiful Lake Chapala and our sky-high Sierra Occidental Mountains. Last, but not least, you will be enchanted by many the friendly and wonderful Mexican people and "ex-pats" in Ajijic, San Juan Cosalá, San Antonio Tlayacapán, Chapala, Jocotepec and the other villages that surround Lake Chapala.

"Vacilar es perdernos." ~ Simón Bolívar

*Nena died on May 21, 2010. She was almost 15 years old.

 Concepts of Intelligence: A book you will enjoy; a book to get you thinking... √