Oil of Olay and Beards

We were enjoying a wonderful Christmas dinner that had been prepared by Mia. Beth and I were asked about the place that we "are staying at". Beth and I are staying at a horse farm in Marlborough with Noel our housemate, two cats, and American dog, a French dog (who seems to bark in English), and eight very beautiful show horses.
One of our dinner companions, I'll call him "Paul", started telling us about a neat guy that he met in Marlborough that he liked, which is something to be noted because "Paul" isn't particularly fond of very many people. He was buying a large quantity of hay from a fellow named Karl. When we heard "Karl" and "Hay" and "Marlborough" in the same sentence we figured out that Karl was possibly the same Karl that normally lives right here in this house. We haven't met him yet because being of above average intelligence, he is still down in warmer climates enjoying winter the way winter is supposed to be enjoyed.
Well Paul and Karl seemed to really click. Somebody asked Paul how old Karl is.
Paul waved his hand and said "Oh, he's about the same age as me".
I leaned over to Jenny and said "Well that really narrows things down".
.
Let me explain how Paul looks. He is tall, has great hair that he wears rather long. It is gray.
He has very bright eyes and wire-rimmed glasses. He doesn't really talk or smile unless he is required to, so he has a minimal amount of wrinkles, in fact, I can't recall seeing ANY wrinkles.
His skin is smooth and healthy looking. All two inches of it. There is about a one inch patch on each cheek that is not covered with fur. He has a very long beard and an even longer mustache.
He wears his fur proudly. It is one of the few things in his life that he has total control over and dammit he's gonna grow it as long as he wants to. It looks good, it's clean, it covers him completely. So you have his hands, his cheeks, and his eyes. That is not very much to use to make an estimate of age from. You could probably check out his teeth if you knew how, but I would be very careful doing that. Beth is probably the only person that Paul would show his teeth to anyhow. He looks healthy. He's cranky enough that you would suspect that he has been around for a while. There really isn't any other way to determine his age. He's ageless. Someday we will all go "Ooooooooh" when we read his obituary.

So you see, Paul's comment about Karl being his age didn't really narrow anything down.
So after my "Well that really narrows things down" comment to Jenny, Paul asked me what that meant. I replied that saying that Karl was the same age as Paul means that "Karl is somewhere between the ages of 40 to 80". Paul said "thanks a lot", but what he didn't realize is that it also is a compliment because of the 40 thing at the lower end of the scale. I really have no clue how old Paul could be. Karl's age is not a mystery to me anymore. Noel was talking about Karl today and mentioned his age. I asked Noel to repeat it. Paul the bearded one seems to have a problem telling the age of other bearded people too. I may not know how old Paul actually is, but at this exact moment Karl and Paul are probably not the same age even though they may look like identical twins. Karl is seventy nine. I wonder how old Paul is. I wonder how old Paul thinks Karl is. I sure wish I could grow a beard.