Hey, good afternoon. I'm so glad you guys have joined me today I am here today with Austin Gardner and it is really interesting because he's with GL pools This is a second-generation business. He's been in business for a very long time But one of the things I'm going to have him explain to us is how do we clean our Swimming pools and spas and this is something we've never talked about on this show before Because it's not something that as professional house cleaners. We typically do now We get asked a lot of times by customers if we can like just clean out their pool or if they can show us how to do it Can we do it or can we clean out the hot tubs and things like that and Oftentimes house cleaners wanting to please the customer will say well sure we can do that and the answer is Let's stop and pause for just a second and find out the rest of the story So today we have Austin Gardner here with us today And I'm hoping he's going to explain to us the realities of how to clean out a swimming pool and a spa So please help me welcome Austin Gardner. How are you today? I'm doing fantastic. Thank you very much. How about yourself? I'm very good. Thank you I want to highlight and I'm going to bring you big here on the screen here for a second because I want to Highlight this amazing swimming pool that you have behind your head I think that's one of the coolest pieces of artwork that I've ever seen and for those of you that are listening to the podcast It's a five-piece canvas painting of a swimming pool that is crystal clear And it's right behind Austin's head on the wall and it looks amazing There you go. That is so cool So I'm curious if you will tell us a little bit about GL pools And how did you get into the pool cleaning business because that's a really important business for people with swimming pools Definitely. Yeah, be happy to share that I am second-generation like you mentioned my father. His name is Phil Gardner. He's owned a pool service company here in San Diego for Soon as I could basically walk and had a day off from school. I'd be tagging along with my dad and learning learning the ropes and It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed those those early years Or when I turned 18 I had a chance to start something of my own. So that's what I did And so you are in San Diego So tell me the the scope of work because I see on the truck that you have here That it also says repair and installation service So this is more than just cleaning tell me a little bit about the scope of the business that you do and How that all works for let's say a homeowner or a B&B owner that has a swimming pool or a vacation rental owner or somebody like that We Can in as much expertise as we can So cleaning is like one of the balls. We're juggling but there's so much more we need to be able to do to provide Quality service and problem solving Unfortunately a pool doesn't just stay problem-free forever. So when a problem does arise Like to help them move through the through those steps and to navigate those next steps So there's a lot that can happen and we want to be an advocate for them Make their their equipment last longer. But when it does There are parts and tools and they get right into the repair and diagnosis So if you keep a pool clean, does that prevent some of the stuff that will help or cause a pool to break down or fall apart It's a fantastic question a very informed question Yes, it it does. Yeah, you can prevent a lot of these issues quite often. We we find Issues pair a lot of times it comes back to a service related issue where we may have low flow, you know pump basket got clogged with leaves Well, that's you know a cleaning issue really that basket should be emptied regularly. It should be inspected weekly That's what our service technicians are trying And to do comes out the pump. Well now you're talking about a multi-thousand dollar repair So it's one of those things where you can step over dollars to save dimes That expression sticks in my mind that if you don't pay for professional services or prioritize these maintenance tasks You end up with much more expensive So then my my question is if you are um Not able to clean your pool on a regular basis like I don't know Let's say that you get super busy and you're not able to clean is it possible that then you would Call a service and have a service come on a regular maintenance basis. So it takes that off your plate Yes, absolutely. And i'm not ashamed to even admit this but I do that for my own pool at home I use our company gl pools to service my pool. I certainly know how but I work full time in this company Do not have to go home and continue working When I get home, I want to spend time with my kids. I've got two young goddess That's precious time before they go to bed. So it offers me the opportunity to do that so it's a way to buy back your time And highly recommend that for homeowners who don't have the time to master this craft it is like To preserve not only the equipment and the the plaster and the materials But the health and the wellness and the enjoyment and those things really really matter so it's about quality of life and helping our clients to Enjoy what they've worked so hard to to put together for their backyard Well, and I know that there are a lot of people who have Entertainment sessions they invite friends over they have parties they have and the backyard is a really big area of entertainment And so making sure that you have a crystal clear pool Is of high priority when you're going to be entertaining and especially now that we see a lot of people getting ready for spring and summer And getting ready for the pools Is there something we do to clean our pools? On off season like right now our pools right now in north caroline are not quite open yet We're like getting ready to open them Is there cleaning and stuff that we should be doing in advance and getting it ready for the the opening of the summer Definitely and there are so many different varieties of answers here because of the the locality So the location matters tremendously in san diego.  We are borderline swim season all year long You know a great part of living here, but that is part of the downside is that pool So we need to make sure that they're maintained all year long As far as winterizing there, obviously there's there's different things for different areas, but You know making sure that that's done on schedule putting it on a calendar is one of those big things for winterizing It needs to be circulating, but you did it a month late. Well that can cost you some time and some money I know that in north caroline and we have a lot of pollen at this time of the year And so if your cover is off your pool, we call them whirly twirlies because The leaves as they start to come on the trees There are these trees that have like little whirly twirlies that come down and they just coat the ground I mean the ground is completely coated and you can't literally take off your your cover until The whirly twirlies have been blown away and it's like another two weeks down the road And then the bee pollen has kind of subsided.  Yeah, we do have pollen issues here, too at whirly twirlies is a new My My language, but we do have pollen issues, you know, those things are high in organic content and High in high in phosphates and things like that. So they even influence the water chemistry They certainly influence the look and the tile So there's a little cleaning tips and tricks that you can do that help to reduce that or make that And so what would you recommend if I were a homeowner and I had whirly twirlies and I had icky icky content as you say organic content inside my swimming pool And I was I was wanting to get it completely clean I went to your website and I pulled out a picture and this was a before picture You have some before and after pictures that are amazing for my favorite But you have a picture here That if I had a swimming pool like that, I mean I would run for dear life It's got all kinds of just ick ick to it. I mean like what do you call this when you see a pool like this? What do you what do you do? So, I mean it looks inviting right you want to invite all your friends and family over to swim Yeah, it's we call this a green to clean. But this is uh, this is the step one You know, they these are very intimidating typically for the homeowner Or for folks who haven't had the experience of turning turning this Or as much Because we're confident that even when we see this we we know that there's a code to break that will turn this into a crystal clean pool There's some things we need to figure out how to increase that flow and to increase filtration and get to the bottom of why this happened in the first place At times you do need to refresh that water if the water is so critically old or mistreated, but most Our cleaning practices on an aggressive schedule coming once or twice a day for three days We can turn them around really quickly at times. We've had somebody with a pool like this that says I was hoping that could swim this week And you know, we have been able to turn it around and that sort of abbreviated timeline It is possible if if you can get down to the bottom why it's happening Well, um, I saw the after picture and I would like to share that if I might This is the after picture of this pool right here. It's shot from a different angle You've got the the diving board right here and then over here you have the diving board over here Which is the corner right here in the picture right This is the same pool and I'm really intrigued at how Number one and maybe you can share the insight on this for us. How did a pool get in this situation in the first place? I believe this was one that I was on site for personally, but the The standard way this happens is through Well, there's a few different ways The one common story is it just didn't make it on the calendar to take care of this pool And once it starts to slip and starts to get out of control It can escalate really quickly and if you don't know what you're looking for You'll miss some of those signs until it's kind of in the too late phase That was probably the number one reason that this started to happen It wasn't something that was on someone's calendar It would two or three years later that filter cannot take any more material So a pool filter has a square Their footage is just packed with material It's like trying to push water through a brick wall You're just not getting any water movement through there And you're not getting any additional bacteria or contaminants removed So in this situation as soon as we clean the filter we were off and running Obviously we had to address the chemistry Because we need to kill that bacteria and kill that algae. So we had to shock that pool But if I recall correctly, this did not use on a standard pool So no magic chemical needed just trying to oxidize and eliminate that bacteria and that algae And give it non-stop filtration for a few days Now you talk about water chemistry for those of us that don't have a swimming pool And this is a new concept to us. What is water chemistry? And how does that affect the cleaning process or the the use of your swimming pool? Right, it's the most important part. I would say of what we have going on with these pools Because not only is it Something you can't see directly it takes some expertise to train and to to test these things and to Influence by that materials that you've spent tens of thousands of dollars on you know pebble or plaster materials They're highly affected by water chemistry So corrosive water that's stripping away eating away at materials or scaling water that's depositing calcium scale those things And we have seen that before Where mismanagement and that even happens sometimes? through I would say air quotes professionals, but maybe less trained less To testing and knowing the things that need to be tested weekly and monthly And logging those things so that you can track trends and understand why those things are happening We're testing chlorine, you know free and total chlorine pH total alkalinity Calcium hardness sinuric acid total dissolved solids salinity a number of other things. So we're testing many things constantly through the To having medical records is understanding what's happening underneath in the why behind what we're seeing play out Well, I was going to ask the question and this comes up to me a lot I get asked a lot in the cleaning business Can a house cleaner jump in and also clean someone's pool like oh, hey By the way while you're cleaning the house Can you step outside and clean the patio and clean the pool as well? And as house cleaners we typically don't do that And you just mentioned a whole bunch of things that would suggest the reasons why from the alkalinity to that the acids and all the different uh technology that you used can you share with us some of the reasons why this is a specialized industry that People outside their league like I say stay in your own lane people outside their league should not be attempting this at someone else's house absolutely, uh, it's an important question and uh, I think it's important to be able to say no We get asked to do things that are Somebody wants us to start breaking up concrete. We're going to partner them with the right person who has the license and the experience to do that That's not us. We want to stay in our lane as well um, and specifically here for the liability aspect This is a body of water that swimmers bathers. They're they're going to be in this body of water That alone increases some liability Not only that those materials we just talked about if somebody Put themselves in a position where maybe they damaged some thousands of dollars of equipment or tens of thousands of dollars in materials That starts to become a very hard to navigate situation. So chemistry knowledge is is huge. It's a Something they can affect the health and wellness of human beings. So it's important that it's done with extra And it's not that it's impossible. It just takes dedication and learning and a professional will have done that And now you mentioned a few and thank you for Explaining that because it's easy then for a house cleaner for example to say no, that's not something that we do also, can we talk about for a second the The possibility I know that there are a lot of vacation rental owners that expect the house cleaner is going to come And even though there are a lot of things that a house cleaner has to do On a vacation rental turn that they don't do on a normal cleaning That does not include pools and I'll back up for just a second on a regular clean We don't open people's drawers. We don't open closets. We don't go through people's stuff For example, but on an Airbnb clean we might we got to open up the bed stand and look inside and make some Sure that somebody didn't leave a charger We got to make sure that people didn't leave clothes in the closet Or that they didn't leave something behind that we then have to ship to them So there are things that we do not because we're spying or we're snooping But because the scope of the work has changed However, and we do laundry and stuff like that that we typically don't do on a regular on a regular cleaning job Because we're washing the bedding in the linens and things like that The scope of work is different but that does not include hot tubs and swimming pools and spas and saunas and things like that Can you address to us the reasons why? Yes for the similar reasons to what we just described there, but um, you know, they're As a we do provide service for airbnbs. They have that high turnover rate high demand. It is a business So it's not the same for us even as treating it like a standard residential. It needs to be treated more similar to a true commercial property In what risks could be posed for a potential hot tub swimmer or bather They're tremendous So getting the wrong chemistry in there and having a rash or not addressing the chemistry at all and getting a recreational waterborne illness those sorts of things are again tremendous This risk the impact on another human being is even more important to me So understanding what could happen. Um, that's one of them That can be managed, uh, but I would recommend drawing the line and you said the word scope I think that's a brilliant word to point out to find the scope and Making sure that a client understands clearly what scope you're committing to it's huge in any sort of agreement You have with a client. This is as far as I'm going to go We will not And as far as I should be stepping into Beyond that, I would recommend pairing them with a good professional pool service cleaning company in that area We can make plans that help to address things like the frequent turn Two to three times a week if they're very high use and they want it perfect. That's likely what it's going to take And for a homeowner that doesn't have a vacation rental property or needs two or three times per cleaning per week About how often does somebody need to hire a service like yours to come Turn over their pool and get it clean and keep the the pipes or the filters clean Sure. Yeah, it's a great question Slightly different answers from everybody, but our philosophy here is that a pool needs to be visited once a week We don't do any service plan where we're not swinging by at least once a week Because water chemistry can change very quickly and nature is not on So we want to see what's happening In and get in front of it two weeks One month, you know, you'll find services that do those intervals But we don't stand behind the quality that that would provide I think that impacts the The equipment in the pool in a negative way. So we would like So I've got a question about um the spas. I know that we have some spas that look like this for example And this might be a hot tub or a Um, I guess it's called a spa. Um, what is the difference in cleaning something like this from cleaning a swimming pool? So a couple differences Um, the primary one is just the volume is so much smaller that it takes much more attention to detail when you're treating that water chemistry Uh, any dose that you would do in a pool if you did something similar in a spa would be outrageously Uh, you know out of whack out of line So we want to understand the gallonage and really use the tools that we have to dose some The frequency of exchanging that water They bathe their load has a tremendous impact on such a small volume of water So knowing how often is it getting used? These are questions. We ask our clients Uh for an air bnb, this is going to need to be drained much more frequently Um, and for a standard family who's using it once or twice a month then So understanding how it's used cleaning the are dealing with the chemistry Uh, and then again, everything is just smaller too. The filter is small It needs to be viewed and cleaned more often because it's smaller. I just can't handle the same kind of volume now I know that I have a hot tub at my house And it has five I believe five filters inside those filters have to be replaced on an average of Um, and I don't mean an average but they have to be replaced on a regular basis Tell me what the um frequency of replacing those filters are they're like round tubes that go inside a little door And then the water fills up in a little door Our filters in general the more frequently you clean them the longer they will last because they're not going through that same stress and strain So part of what we do we have everybody on a filter cleaning schedule Um, even in our industry, that's not a standard to hold a very very tight schedule Sometimes it's we'll get to the filter when we can or we'll do it You know, maybe half the frequency that we do it. Um, we recommend Four times a year that is the best way to prevent those issues prevent tearing for jacuzzi's again Knowing the beta load would would impact that but if you are cleaning it more frequently, you know Once a month or twice a month Until they're very impacted. Well that water pressure is determined to find a way through that fabric And so it's going to start to tear stretch crunch pull twist It's it's strong. So it's going to find a way through and so preventing that Another thing that I I have at my house and it was kind of a fun thing is a really long skinny little vacuum And they sold it to me because I like vacuums and I like cleaning and they said, hey, we got the perfect thing for you This is for homeowners and they said if you're a homeowner you should have one of these and I said, okay Cool and I I don't know when I'm supposed to use it But I've used it a couple times just because I have it and I'm like, wow I see like little bits of sand and stuff at the bottom of my pool And I go out and it has it's a really long skinny tube. I'm sure that you know what I'm talking about And it's like a pump and you hold one side of it and you pump with the other side of it Almost like you were inflating a bicycle tire with a bicycle Right and it scoops up It's got like little brushes on the end of it and it will scoop up and it will eat the sand That's at the bottom of the pool and it traps it into a little filter that then can be empty Tell us about uh things that a homeowner can do in their jacuzzi or their pool Whether it's a little vacuum like that or maybe a robot vacuum that has a motor to it I've seen some of those as well. Do you recommend those? Yes, uh, so we we do recommend a pool cleaner in just about every pool Some pools it's around our area. It's probably more standard to have a suction side cleaner This is one of those things that can be different all over the world But our particular market it's a lot more suction side cleaners Um a vac line and we can get dedicated suction through a hose and a cleaner That's particularly my favorite just because of affordability and trustworthiness But there are situations where we may recommend a robotic style cleaner as well A robot a sweep whatever the lingo is in every particular area That does benefit everyone obviously it makes the pool stay cleaner But the issues that I see with pools that don't have that those deal with things like organic staining So a leaf sits on the bottom of the pool Uh for undisturbed for five six days until its next cleaning visit Well, that stain It's going to take some work to remove or it's going to take some time to bleach out and fade out With a vacuum cleaner. It's picking that leaf up Similar to for preventing algae You don't have soil and dust and dirt build up and all these spots as much So a vacuum is a great idea That plunger style vacuum that you're discussing especially for smaller areas like a jacuzzi Very handy tool because your service may not be there on a Friday night And that might be when someone's about to enjoy the spa Well being able to have a couple quick ways to deal with that debris yourself is It's handy. Um, so definitely those tools So You can remove it Uh, if you have toys at the bottom of the pool, you don't have to send the kids in to go pick them up You've got a pole and a net ready on hand to to get those out So those sorts of things just the standard tools what we'd recommend Tell me about the standard tools what standard tools should every homeowner have you mentioned a pool and a net Is that something that a professional would use or something that a homeowner would have that they themselves would use startups for pool New pool owners and one of the things we do in that startup process is called a pool school We'll inform them on you know the risks of pool ownership the things you need to keep an eye on The preventative maintenance. We of course talked to them about the value of professional service We usually try to make sure they have the essential tools as well So we want them to have at least a pole a brush a net if they are trusting a professional service. There's a probable A Mind Be more of the knowledge the knowledge to understand what to do in case of an emergency How do I decommission or shut off my pool in case something's gone wrong? So knowledge and swimmers say Full knowing how to shut a breaker off knowing how to Uh, instruct your kids or young swimmers how to stay safe in and around the pool how to make sure we're aware of Keeping an adult Supervisor around the pool. So there's figurative tools like that, but they're very very valuable We want every homeowner to be confident around their pool and have good memories only. That's one of the things we say around here I love that So how does a person hire a professional pool company if they don't have one?  Excellent question. Um, I would recommend A few different steps one would be to talk to your friends and neighbors if you do have somebody in the area and Of course, he's going to represent themselves well Hopefully in those arenas but getting someone who can attest to the real life experience That somebody has provided for them Long-standing client is, you know, probably a good thing As far as asking the pool service Company questions. There's some really great questions. I'd recommend I would ask things like how do you schedule these routes? How do I ensure that I won't get messed? Unfortunately at times in the pool industry It's not as as formal of a schedule for us. We do use software that keeps us on a fairly rigid schedule We've never That we're hitting them on time on the same predictable day with the same technician So it's important that somebody asks that it's important that somebody asks how much training they have on the topics of chemistry and mechanics It'd be important to ask do they have any knowledge about repairs? Things will go wrong. Unfortunately, some pool service companies they they won't be able You want somebody who can also advocate for you and prevent issues, but solve them when they do come up Those are some of the things that come to mind Asking the specifics about chemistry in our area There's a tendency to overuse certain chemicals like chlorine tabs And those have a side effect of overdoing the pool with sinuric acid, which is the not to get Too into the weeds here, but it's a binding agent of this chemical and your pool only needs so much Refill this pool. It's a significant waste of time and money And not to mention California. We can't afford to waste water So all of those things together we want to prolong the life of that that water Those are some questions that come to mind And then another question that I have is how does a person know that their pool needs to be clean Can you like see it with the human eyes or If you wait until you can see that it needs to be clean you waited too long Exactly that's exactly where my brain was going It's by the time you have that visual feedback We have let something happen that didn't need to happen So preventative maintenance is almost always the the cheapest and most peaceful form Chasing these problems and wasting time and stressing about them That there is an issue occurring but understanding how to test things and how to Engage with the equipment the equipment is going to give us some feedback like the pressure gauge It's going to tell us The pounds per square inch on the filter. Well, that's something that we log on every visit so that we can Much material and need to clean the filter is it trending down? Well, that gives us a whole another scenario to pursue Why are we reducing flow? It could be a suction issue. It could be a blockage So understanding how to read those measurements and then similarly with the chemistry Understanding what's going to happen if I don't address this low issue? It may not show up today, but in a week two weeks a month We'll start to see it show up in the pool.  Sometimes there's like a sulfur kind of smell Yes, so typically that means we don't we haven't hit breakpoint chlorination. We don't have free chlorine in the pool Yep, even at times you can get that smell just with adding chlorine, but not enough or adding a sanitizer, but not enough So that Mel we need to oxidize that out. We have a backlog basically of of organic material That needs to be removed. So there's different ways to do that. You can do that through a Chlorine through different sanitizers. You can also use Way to break down and oxidize And vaporize the the materials there in that pool But it's an important point that somebody would smell that and understand what's going on and then start getting into the chemistry and find out why it's happening When you use a public swimming pool You'll often see signs and the signs will say things like please shower before getting in this swimming pool Does that really make a difference or is that just like a polite thing to do? Both I suppose, but yes it does it does make a very big difference because we're not a Pool and when you have just one person in a pool as a resident You're not going to see the impact of that significantly When you have 400 people make it through that pool in a day Then those habits and those signs can have a huge impact Yes, so that oil body film sunscreen even those things can create That's water surface that water tension doesn't allow for oxidation of the water doesn't allow for it to function correctly At a commercial pool and you you ever see kind of a gummy oily film that's attached to the tile That's where that's coming from. It's typically from the bait or load sweats Sweat and things like that So I have another picture which reminds me because this is a picture of a swimming pool and the The reason that I pulled this up and I got this from your website It looks like there's a ring around the pool And it looks like at the bottom. There's little tiny bits of debris And I'm I'm curious When we see something like this, what is happening in the pool and when we call and ask you like, hey, there's something in my pool How would you describe this to a repair technician so that they could come and do the job properly and know what you're trying to explain? Sure, I think this pool in particular was in the process of a I believe a drain or a refill But we do see situations where we'll have a water level stay exactly perfect, but not we're not perfect, but I think it's okay just to let their pool sit through, you know, half the year and just turn it back on in the spring and summer In that scenario that can leave a line if it's like that for, you know, more than a couple days What we would start Be cleaned off fairly easily If it's scale, you know, because we have Water hardness issues in different locations Then we need to treat it differently because scale is going to require removal of scale But we do see at times Through construction and different issues like that that you have some staining Staining is because you can't start treating it until you've investigated it So we'd want to know what it is. Is it an organic like I was mentioning earlier the botanical stains Well, those are easy to treat if you know what they are if it's a rust stain an iron stain a copper stain You need to know what the metal is That's being where stain is treated the same way And at times treating the stain with the wrong material the wrong chemical is going to make that particular stain worse So we use products like jack's magic. They have some stain identification tools That help us in our industry to know what's going on so you can figure out what type of stain that is And as far as cleaning that the floor of that pool, you know, there's different ways to do it a light acid And starting it back up again with fresh water if it's been sitting stagnant for a long long time. Sometimes that's the way to go Are there certain things that homeowners should be looking for In the cleanliness of their pool to say, oh, hey, wait a second. There's something that I need to call a professional for help on Um providing that they have a regular schedule and there's a regular service If they see something should they say something or do they just wait for the next service call? We'd always love for our clients to reach out to us. We're very approachable and our office We'd rather get that early notice even if it just gives them peace of mind. That's valuable to us. We won't Pool So, uh, I would always recommend There's no no harm in communicating send a picture if you have a professional pool company that can receive photos Send a picture or a video or get a phone call Into them and ask them is this normal? Is that the wrong with being curious and asking? And hopefully getting a quick answer But yes, there are definitely things you'd want to listen for or look for The equipment is one of those areas if you hear noises coming from the equipment that are not That's starving for water and it's cavitating which is when it's it's struggling to get enough water Well, that could be a sign that there's a blockage. There's a Air loss a vacuum loss somewhere and if that goes on for several days That could be placing things that don't need to be replaced So we have sounds we have sites like less water flow If you see less water flow than the normal where you attempt to use some function of the pool or spot It doesn't work. Well, we've got to investigate why if anything like that happens I would reach out immediately and start getting answers to why it's happening You mentioned sending a photo or a video. Do you have a preference as to which is best? It depends on what what information I need to see here A photo can be real quick and easy for a homeowner as well But if we need to hear a sound or see an action then I would rather get that video so I can get a little bit more So a question is I know a lot of videos eat up a lot of megabytes or gigabytes or whatever with settings on the phones What is the best way to send a video if when you try to send it like through email and says Oh, there's too many megabytes that won't let you send the video Is it better to like upload it to your youtube channel and send a link or like what what do you recommend? Yeah, I I think one pro tip. There's a lot of videos Just probably be able to get that that information in eight seconds or less Uh, and that might really help to transfer that data otherwise, you know Better format than you know using our our texting app that can only handle so much data So yeah, sometimes we'll ask them to if it's a longer form send it by email But I don't have a whole lot of other information on that. Unfortunately. I don't know how to get Those compressed any any more than that The reason I ask is because we had not used our hot tub in a long time And we are getting ready to sell our house and we wanted it in working order before we sold it to the next owner And so we went to turn it on and there was like a leak And I was like, oh my goodness. There's a leak and how do I how do I explain the leak because I need somebody to come out and fix it And so I unscrewed the front panel and then I could see the leak So I just took a Little video with my camera and then I tried to do just that I tried to send it But it was like too many megabytes or whatever And so I was like, well, I have a youtube channel So I'll just make it unlisted but I'll upload it to the youtube channel And then I'll send them the link because then at least they can click on link and watch the video But then I was like, this is not the normal way to do it And I know that I'm trying to Make something that's not this is not the right way how they receive information But I was like, I don't know what else to do. So that's how I did it. That's brilliant I mean, that's a thinking outside the box solutions type thing I think another way at times is if uh, if your provider can hop on FaceTime or video chat That's something we've done from time to time with our clients who have an ongoing active You know, I remember in this, well, let me see if I can get somebody to hop on FaceTime with you All right, see this one. Yep, you're pointing right at it. Let's go ahead and turn that clockwise It's just like having a little coach show up on your phone. So at times that can be a good way as well Oh, I love that. That's a great way to do it And that way you've got two-way communication where you could ask the question like hey When did this start happening and you know kind of troubleshoot it in order to know what Equipment to bring out or what parts you need to order Yep, it's live feedback. So everybody's getting what they need faster. What's happening right then and there One of the things that I've discovered and this is just for me personally is whenever I call a repair service and you might give me advice on How to tweak this so that it's more effective for you for example But one of the things that I've always done is I've tried to take a photo copy of the serial number or the model number If there's a part in question And that way they can either order the part or they know what version it is or they can look it up or whatever it is They do what do you recommend? We provide the service provider when we're calling to ask for help It's a great question. I think that photos often up Yeah That's you know if we're trying to help somebody get a quote for an immediate repair or emergency repair That's usually our starting point if you know the make and model you can text it to us But uh or call us and tell us about it But if we can get that picture, you know, we're so familiar with all the pool equipment We're going to know what that make and model is a lot of times just from a photograph Now if it's an ongoing client for us somebody to sign up for service What we do is an onboarding The stance of any sort of emergency we're prepared So if they say hey my heater is not working Well, if they're a client with uh with us I already have photos of that heater and I already know the make and model So I can say all right. What's happening? We can start working on a solution for you and we don't have to ask them in the middle of their crisis to do a whole lot That uh makes them uncomfortable, you know climb around back there and take pictures We we can skip that step if What a great idea So then the next question is and this is not a question that I prepared to ask you But I have to ask now because I'm thinking about do it yourself or is in youtube Um, what happens when there's a problem and the do it yourself or says Oh, I can probably fix this by watching a youtube video And then they try to fix let's say a pump or a filter or something in the swimming pool And then maybe it voids a warranty of a park or something because they they did it the wrong way Can you address that issue for me? Absolutely, we we do see that from time to time Poolish spa heater But one of the things that they require for that to be under warranty is to have chemical records and to have those chemical records Show that it's been in balanced condition for a lot of these heater manufacturers They want that log that says yes back in june. My average ph was blah blah blah So not having those records or not having the the professional The calling for a warranty also the the tinkering if somebody has engaged with something But they're not the qualified warranty professional That can come back to bite them as well. So it's not that it's I personally I don't think I'm smarter than anyone. I think I've spent a lot of time doing this one particular trade So I've acquired a valuable skill set that I can offer to other people. So I never approach it as this take It's not one of the things we say is not rocket science, but it is science So it does take some dedication to understand why it's happening and what's happening And it takes putting in in my opinion years to get good at this So that's the value of that di wires Just knowing what that line is that you're comfortable If someone's dedicated enough time and effort into getting good at cleaning the pool That doesn't mean they should take the next step at jumping into You We're going from From one zone into a very different zone So I don't recommend that I think you that's the line that You know, you definitely want to draw a line somewhere and that's a good line Well, thank you for bringing that up But I have to talk about di wires for a second because there will always be di wires I mean, I don't know why but there always will be what are some of the misconceptions or Misunderstandings that some di wires have about cleaning pools Well to speak bluntly, I think a lot of people think that it's simple that it's easy Because It just looks it looks simple I think from an outside perspective when you haven't gone through the education Understand what can happen if you haven't had those negative experiences It just looks like anybody can do this But not everybody can do this without and dedicating a lot of time so Similar to any trade you you can do it if you dedicate a whole lot of time From my experience the challenges that they come in also have a lot to do with schedule Even if somebody can do it at a decent level But there's their life is so busy life is so busy That it's just hard to make sure that you dedicate this the calendar to this And you don't miss Time and if you miss that appointment You might be in an unrecoverable zone where now you really need to spend a lot of time chasing this and getting it back in shape So, uh, that's that's a big issue and then also access to materials goods, you know, we Deal with it's about anything we need for the residential pool service world in a day or so That's not something that's as easy to access for a di wire So they might be making concessions installing the wrong part that might kind of work here Using the wrong type of glue using the wrong type of fitting those sorts of things And then those cause bigger problems later on i'm assuming absolutely One of the things that can happen is now you are no longer adhering to any sort of electrical or plumbing codes You're not adhering to local building requirements Uh, you're installing things at the wrong spacing too close to a house not, you know Not close enough to the shut off valve And then those things can really bite you when you go to sell your house And the home inspection points out a bunch of unsafe work surrounding the pool Hmm, I did not think about that. Let's talk for a second about People repurposing their homes because I know right now we're in a really weird real estate era Where people are not Buying new homes as much as the the new home's construction has kind of ground to a halt And a lot of people are staying put they're staying in their homes right now The price of homes has gone up as have the interest rates So people like oh, hey, I should I should build a pool and or I should renovate a pool that exists in my house That's been neglected Tell me a little bit about that process and some of the things that we need to be on the lookout for absolutely The process there, I think, you know, we do see that psychologically Happening a lot here in our local market. It's just whether or not I'm going to move I want this to look nice If I'm if I'm here for longer than I expected to be I want to enjoy it To the maximum that I can so We're big on the philosophy of of preventative maintenance and prolonging the beauty And the maximum enjoyment people haven't put in pools and spas because they had to they put it in Because typically an emotional decision. I want the kind of lifestyle that this affords me So how do we pair that up with making sure that when you go to use it? It looks beautiful and things are functioning correctly Now those those same philosophies are going to serve somebody really well if they try to sell their house as well So keeping things as dialed Put something on the market if maybe the market pivots or you or you need to move If a family situation you need to you know get this posted and listed Well, if you've got all this backlog work to do and the pool has really fallen off and it doesn't look appealing Well, the people who are coming in to view this property, they're going to have emotional reactions too And you don't want to look like that picture with the green pool That's not the backyard that somebody wants to walk into Crystal clean pool that's ready to go that says I'm inviting have fun make some memories back here This is a great spot for you. So just keeping it clean and ready Can really save a lot of time and hassle and and make you ready to pivot whichever way you need to go That's funny you bring that up because I was looking at some real estate homes in my area the other day because we're our houses on the market We just we're under contract right now But as I was looking at this one home and it was a beautiful home There was a pool a picture of the swimming pool from every angle and from every time of day And there were like the umbrellas were open and then there was lemonade out on there And then the lemonade was gone and now there's a plant out there And it was all about the pool and I was like this is so odd because really the best part about this house Whatever the house is like they didn't care much about showing the house at all. It was all about the pool Right. These people are selling a pool. They're not selling a house. They're selling a pool in a lifestyle that goes with it Absolutely. Yeah, that's uh for a lot of clients That's what they've envisioned when they went to get a building You know lifestyle change and it really can be a lot of my best memories in my childhood Swimming in the family pool learning to swim my dad teaching me how to swim my Biggest brother oldest brother thrown me in the pool All the crazy stuff that happens in a family pool. Well, those are core memories for me Style thing that you you build these memories and have this confidence That you've learned to swim that you're comfortable swimming. You have relaxation serenity. They can have a huge impact on the quality of life How can pool owners extend the lifespan of their pool and their equipment or their accessories? Great question Biggest thing there. It's going to be scheduling things preventively Talked about a little bit filter cleanings make sure those are done on schedule Making sure those pump baskets skimmer baskets are maintained emptied That you don't let cracked materials exist that you replace things when they need to be replaced All those sorts of things are going to lead to a healthier life cycle for the equipment And then that water chemistry has a huge impact on everything that corrosive water. That's too acidic that It's going to strip away metal out of the heater and it's going to tear apart this expensive piece of machinery So that's one of those ways that you can just make things last longer I like to consider it. I enjoy strategy. So I like to think about what's my annual cost of owning a pool And how do I keep that as as low as possible? Because why not? I'd like to keep that as low as possible And this is where I think if people thought this way They would actually if you don't have that support and you do have an issue or a mistake gets made Of course we're human and it leads to a three thousand dollar four thousand dollar piece of equipment that lasted half its life and you know 15 thousand dollar plaster Spend way more to own a pool than you would if you outsourced that to a professional and they make things last twice as long three times as long And that's not even counting for it all the time you get back in your life All the time you get to go do something that makes you feel happy versus working on a chore around the half Oh, tell me if you will about maintaining things like I don't know they're like I'm going to call them extras things like Waterfalls and water slides and diving boards and things like that that some people have attached to their swimming pools Those features can be really exciting and uh, they add a lot of beauty So understanding the mechanics behind it would be the first step for us We want to know does it have its own dedicated, uh equipment? Does it have its own pump? What makes this function? Does it have a valve that rotates with a motor which would be called an actuator? Is that what's creating this flow through this water feature? We understand we need to understand how and why it operates so that It comes to mind in our area we deal with a lot of calcium hardness high calcium buildup over time And when that happens we see it's kind of on surfaces. So with those water features things that drip or run off A lot of times we recommend scheduling them only for the hours of the day that somebody's present to enjoy them Or leaving them on a manual turn off and on situation sometimes people let them run all the time but that More scale buildup just because we're introducing more water on the surface of these things So just being clever about how to operate these so that you lead to less problems for the homeowner that has um Equipment and or chemicals at their home. What is the proper way to store those? Yes, very important. We try to catch this especially when we're doing pool schools Or chemicals that somebody bought you know made from leslie's or uh home depot Two years ago stored outdoors in the sun Um, so things like that really catch our attention because that's a that's a severe hazard And so do you recommend a dedicated place to put those like let's say indoors in a cool dry place Like all other kind of cleaning chemicals For most yes, most of our clients we actually recommend they don't have any of these chemicals on site And they just let us bring uh bring what we need and we don't try to leave anything The reason for that is even The more sick kids a dog So unless it's fully fully locked up And ventilated which also needs to be ventilated for most pool chemicals It's just not typically a great idea, but if you they need to be stored upright Revented lids they need to be stored upright. They need to be spaced correctly not next to fellow combustible materials So, uh, you know a locked room or a very safe area where yes cool and dry out of direct sunlight Those would be things I'd be looking for Oh my goodness you are a wealth of knowledge. I mean just a wealth of knowledge I did not know that I would have so many questions number one number two I did not know I would learn so much just in the short hour that we spent together And I'm looking at the clock and our time is gone I mean the time has just flown and I say here and I'm like, oh, I've got so many more questions This is amazing. Um, but please tell our listeners where they can go to find you Absolutely. It's been a blast for me. Uh, so thank you very much for having me, Angela The view uh the listeners can go to glpools.com. That's probably the best way to find That's packed with us. If you're in the San Diego area, we service the entire San Diego county We're always happy to partner up with people In our area even in other industries. There's sometimes a lot of uh collaboration that can exist You can also find us on instagram as well. You can look up gl pools where you can find me on link Happy here as well And I'm going to leave links in the notes below so that you guys can connect with Austin and gl pools And maybe get other questions answered and if you're in the San Diego area, certainly have them come out and take a look at your pool I uh, I've learned so much today and I think I got all of my questions answered as far as Let me just repeat it and say it so that there are no surprises and there's no guesswork The professional house cleaners are not pool cleaners. We don't clean pools We don't clean hot tubs. We don't clean jacuzzi's and all the things And if you are a homeowner and you're do it yourself Unless you are willing to go through pool school And you're willing to learn the chemistry of it and you're willing to put it on your calendar and do it on a regular basis And not let it slip Okay, house cleaning can slip a little bit but it sounds like the pool cannot because it's going to get really expensive If you let it slip and then try to recoup the the cleaning and the maintenance and all this stuff So just put it on a calendar and let a professional do that It's one of the costs of owning a swimming pool and having that amazing lifestyle that you see in the pictures Am I right? Did I get that right? Absolutely knock it out of the park. That's amazing Awesome. Thank you Austin so much for joining us today. I've I've been enlightened. I've really thoroughly enjoyed this hour I appreciate your time and your energy. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you so much for having me on Right. We'll see you guys again soon. Same time same place next week. Take care


Okay, yeah So yes, good morning to all of you I Don't know either people are just quiet or they are very sad Or they are tired. I'm trying to analyze the emotions over here But I just hope it's not sadness or tiredness Yes, yeah, you know Monday mornings, I know can be a little draining So yes We were covering the historical books we looked at the books of Samuel we looked at Kings We looked at chronicles. We only have one historical book left Which is the book of Esther and then hopefully we will be able to start off with the poetic Books the books which are generally called the wisdom books. They are mainly poetic books So, um, we'll try to cover one poetic book today And we'll of course also finish off this last historical book of ester So hopefully ester will cheer you all up a little bit and bring some happiness into your monday morning All right, so yeah, we'll Begin Now if you look at the book of ester one main thing that we see is Even though the name of god is not mentioned even once in this entire book We see god completely in control Completely at work in every single event that takes place in this book Um on the other hand in this book you have the king's name and haman's name mentioned multiple times They are the ones doing all the actions. They are the ones taking all the decisions But the person who's actually in charge of what's going on is god even though he is not mentioned Uh, so that's the beauty of this book. We see the love of god Where he cares about his people who are living in a foreign land and we see his sovereignty He's in full control of the situation even though, um, you know the There are powerful people working against the Israelites We see that god is fully in control. Okay, so, um, even as we look at the book of ester We should see it as a book offering encouragement Okay, because um even in our current scenario The church is living in an age in an era where we have powerful influential people at work You know, if you look at our news channels today You're going to hear the names of politicians. You're going to hear the names of uh, you know, very rich influential people You're not going to hear any of them mentioning the name of Jesus, you know in in our news channels But even though the These influential people are the ones doing all the actions. They are the ones taking all the decisions There's somebody who's not even being mentioned But he is behind the scenes and he is fully in control So even as we see the things which are happening in our world today It is good for us to remember this The influential people they talk they act they decide But there's somebody behind the scenes and he is the one who is actually in sovereign control And we see that reality coming out in this, uh, book of ester um, so, um Where exactly is this entire? Story situated. What's the location of this entire event which is happening? All of this is taking place in the capital city of susah in the persian kingdom if you remember when the When the people of juda sinned against god The lord allowed the babelons to come and capture them and the people were taken as captives to To babelon and from babelon during those 70 years of exile Jewish people start spreading out to many other Regions, so they don't all stay in babelon. They move out and they go to many many different places So you have some people coming over here to the persian territory and you know, you have them settling down in different places. So, um Nehemiah is one of those people he He's either born over there or I know Or he he he already comes over there as a grown-up. We do not know but he assumes a position of authority in the capital of susah so So now we have people living even in this persian territory and this particular story is taking place in you know in this city So We have many details regarding this particular king the king who chooses to marry Esther. We have more details about him More historical details about him because of an ancient writing Which is available a greek author named herodotus. He wrote about King Zeres, okay, that's the That's the greek name which herodotus gives to this particular king um the Other name which is generally used for this king is ahasuerus So ahasuerus is more the traditional name that is given to this king But then herodotus in his historical records. He always refers to this particular king as king zeres So he gives many details about this particular king and we get to know that When zeres comes to the throne He suffers from a lot of rebellion from the Babylonians, you know, who have been conquered But still they are they are rebelling and they are creating a lot of confusion in his land So when he comes to the throne, he has a tough time putting down all of their, uh, you know All of their attacks all of their rebellions. So all those things are recorded in the uh in the in that historical book, which Herodotus has written so egyptian egyptians also were creating confusion for this king So that is why when haman comes to King Zeres and says, you know, there's this entire race of people the jews and they are dangerous They can create a very serious rebellion because they're all over our land and you know, they can create havoc Because their customs are very different They follow a different god and so when haman comes and instigates the king The king is more open to what haman is saying because of the kind of Political scenario that this man was facing already is having much trouble from the egyptians He's been having trouble from the Babylonians So under those circumstances, he certainly doesn't want problem now from the jewish people as well And that is why he's so open to whatever haman, you know says, uh to him. So we need to understand this Political background that is there, you know running in this story Another thing that we get to know through the historical records of Herodotus is that Um Zeres has this desire to conquer Greece and so uh, he goes to the greek capital Is able to capture that place for a little while for for a few years and uh, so he decides to establish a palace over there and you know Establish his political control over there in Greece, but then the Greeks are too powerful He's unable to hold on to his position over there. And so after a few years he's defeated He has to come back. You know, the Greeks are able to take back their city and he is not successful in his attempt so The story of washti, you know the queen who refuses to come and um Honor him by you know meeting with all of his guests That event takes place before he goes on his greek campaign And so he's very angry.  He stays over there for a while But then the greek army is able to take back the capital And so he comes back home in a defeated state. He is in a rather Bad mood. He's not very happy with the way things are going So now he thinks it would be so nice if he can have a new distraction So all he's looking for is a new distraction not so much for a wife to love and honor But just another new chief queen, you know, uh, because those that's the way those kings functioned in those days So in this kind of a scenario, uh, esther is chosen and uh, you know, she's selected to become the chief queen So looking at the structure of this book of esther, we can say the chapters one and two um One section because that's basically where we see um esther being chosen And um, we have you know esther chapter two was 17 where it says the king loved esther more than all the women and she found favor and kindness with him God causes The heart of this king to be moved so that he shows kindness to esther So that he considers her as favorable. So god helps her in getting favor all right And chapters three and four is basically where you have the plot being formed by haman to destroy the jewish people and um And so it is in chapters three and four that modekai comes to esther and he says god has placed you in this position of power So now you must do something to help your people, you know, the jewish people and um This is what he says in fact in chapter four if we can have someone read out for us um esther chapter four verse 14 esther four verse 14 For you few remain completely silent at this time Relief and relief and deliverance will arise for the jews from one another from another place But you and your father's house will perish yet. Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this Okay, when we look at this Words which modekai speaks to esther. He does not have any doubt about how about how god will help them He's hundred percent sure that god will rescue them But all he is saying to esther is You can get a chance to play a part in this Are you willing to do that if you refuse to play your part god will find some other method of rescuing us But you you will perish So the choice that he's placing before her is Something great is going to happen God is going to rescue his people you can choose to be a part of that and play a role in it Or you can just simply you know, uh, choose not to be a part of it and uh, you know That's a lesson that applies to the church today. Even as we are undergoing persecution in so many places We can either choose to play a part in what god is doing Or we can stand back and say no, I think I'll just watch out for my own interests and you know Refuse to take a stand for the lord So the lord ultimately will do what he wishes to do for his church His plans and purposes will be established no matter how much opposition there is God will have his way But will you and I get a chance to have a role to play That is our choice if we say lord. Yes, I wish to take a stand Yes, I wish to do something for the church in this time of persecution That's a personal choice that we choose to make And so here esther in fact agrees and she says yes I am willing to do something for the lord and so I know that should be even our own attitude and our own stand Uh, you know in our present age So chapters three and four is basically where the plot Is hatched by harm to harm the people and esther agrees to help In chapters five to ten, that's the last section That's basically where she's able to approach the king And she's able to uh, you know destroy the plan which haman had So haman's uh plan to destroy the jewish people is not Successful. So chapters five to ten can be the third section um Now as uh when when we look at the very uh last portion of esther Uh, the we we see in I think it was in chapter nine or chapter 10 We get to know that a festival of purim Is instituted in honor of the deliverance which god brought to the people You know, uh, if someone could look up in your bible and tell me which is the reference Is it in chapter nine or is it in chapter 10 somewhere at the end of one of those chapters? It's mentioned saying that uh as a you know in in honor of what god did this festival was instituted Okay, so in chapter nine is where it is recorded So why was this particular festival called the festival of purim? That's because of that particular word the persian word puru That persian word puru basically means lots Um now in english, you know, we maybe we would you we would use the term paper paper chips, you know, so If they want to choose a leader, they would write the names of maybe three four persons in in paper chips And then of course they did not have paper, but you know, they would use something else I mean, uh, uh, they would they would inscribe the name on something else and use that so lots were cast So they would either put a put the put all the names in a cup shake the cup and then you know The first one which falls out that will be the one which is chosen In the so over here The the lords are cast by haman. We see that in ester chapter three verse seven He's trying to choose the date on which the uh, jewish people will be destroyed So the lots are cast To find out which should be the appointed day on which the jewish nation is completely going to be destroyed from the persian kingdom so, um It was their belief that when they use this system of casting lots The their gods their persian gods would Would would give their decision through the correct You know, uh through the through the correct sheet which falls out from the cup They shake the cup and whatever falls out that according to them is what the gods have chosen So, um, haman uses that particular method. Um If we could have someone read out ester chapter three verse seven ester three seven Is All right, so here it says that The lords were cast in the presence of haman. So the priests would have come They would have cast the lots and this particular day was selected for the destruction of the jewish people But on that particular day, you know, we know the if we know the story We we we learn that on that same day Which the evil one had chosen for destruction on that same day, uh, you know, uh, god Instigates the king so that the king says on that day The people will be allowed to defend themselves and they will have victory. So we have all the jewish people able to fight back and on that day rather than destruction There is great victory all the enemies who wanted to defeat them and kill them. They get killed instead So there's a great deliverance which takes place So even though the lot was cast for something evil God chooses that particular day for a great Deliverance, you know, again, there is a learning in this, you know The evil one selects Certain days certain seasons, you know to bring destruction into our lives into our families But that very same Things which he has chosen, you know, those days can be turned into days of victory If we choose to trust in the lord If we say lord, I know that what the season that i'm going through right now It's a season of great difficulty and the evil one is trying to bring harm to me and my family But i'm looking to you in the same way that you delivered the jewish people in that time Lord, you turn around what the evil one is trying to do and you cause victory lord to come out of this situation rather than destruction So if when we turn to the lord in faith in that way, what has been chosen for destruction Will instead turn into an event that brings great deliverance and great victory and glory to the lord's name. Okay, so So in that way the feast of purim, you know, comes into existence Now one thing that is generally told about the book of esther, you know, very proudly all the Indians say that India is mentioned in the book of esther But I mean when we actually look at the geographical details, it's not actually India At least not the current India which is mentioned in esther chapter one was one So it says in esther one one This is what happened during the time of xeris the xeris who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to kush So over here when it says India, it's actually talking about the Indian subcontinent It's talking about the northwestern region of Pakistan where you had the Indus valley, you know those of us who have done Indian history We are familiar with the Indus valley civilization. That's basically in your northwestern Pakistan. So this king xeris was so powerful that his Kingdom extended all the way up to the northwestern province of Pakistan. So when it says India, it's actually referring to the Indian subcontinent okay, so The other extreme is at the other end the western end It's extending all the way up to kush. Now kush is basically in Egypt So all the way from kush in Egypt up to the northwestern province of Pakistan This this man's kingdom was extending over that huge area All right, so this was a very powerful king And this king he chooses to appoint as one of his main officials He appoints haman as his in charge as one of his main officials so Some commentaries they say that haman was referred to as the kiliyak C-h-i-l-i-a-r-c-h A kiliyak is basically a commander of thousand So he's like the One of the topmost military officials. So that is basically the position given to haman and so The order is given that everyone should show respect to haman and they should bow down before him and We learn that Mordecai refuses to do that So we see nester chapter three that after haman is instituted in that powerful position of Kiliyak Everyone shows him. I know respect bows down to him, but mordecai refuses to do that There are people who say that Mordecai did not bow down because he he believed that we should bow down only to god But then nobody was really bowing down to haman as worship They were doing it more as a it's a cultural thing. I mean in our eastern culture We know we we bow down to show respect Not because we are worshiping that person or anything of that sort Um Because i'm in we see that in many on many occasions in the old testament Even the jewish people Followed this cultural custom of bowing down out of respect um If maybe we could have someone read out genesis chapter 33 verse three And look at the amount of bowing down which takes place over here in genesis 33 Verse three someone could read out He Here it's talking about jacob jacob is going Towards isaw and he bows down seven times to the ground Now he's definitely not doing this to worship isaw. It's just an act of respect that he's you know showing To his elder brother Especially because he wants to win his favor so Bowing down was a cultural practice of showing respect and modekai refused to give haman this respect Why what was the You know, what is the reason that he was so stubborn why he refused to show respect to haman? um Just a minute Yeah, there's a very relevant question asked over here by Shubo Shubo go show that sounds very Bengali. I think maybe you're you have a Bengali background. Uh, yeah, uh, so, uh, yeah, um This person's uh question is uh, you know, especially in north india Is it all right to You know bend down and touch the feet of your elders to show them respect Yes, it is true that when this custom was first instituted It was meant as an act of worship where you're supposed to worship your elders as though they are gods above you. Okay, but I don't think anybody even thinks of this custom in terms of worship anymore This is just a purely cultural thing that we do Just to show respect. So, um, if somebody is coming from another, you know, uh background religious background And uh, if they suddenly stop showing respect to their elders, it will create a very bad impression So yes, I would say please continue to show respect to your elders by, you know, uh, Bowing down and touching their feet You're not doing it to worship them. That is simply not the implication at all You're just doing it out of worship in the same way jacob over here bowed down seven times to the ground As he was approaching he saw in our Indian culture We would you know bow down to touch the feet of our elders if you're from that kind of a cultural background If you're not from that kind of a cultural background, it's not even necessary So I would just say that as part of a as a cultural practice It is all right because if you if if a new believer stops showing respect For elders then it will create a very wrong impression. In fact, those people will in fact start thinking oh Is that what chris teaches that uh, that uh, you know, the these youngsters should not Show respect to their elders. We don't want any that kind of wrong implications coming out Okay, so yes as a cultural practice It's quite all right to show respect to our elders by touching their feet And we are not going to be doing it as any as any kind of act of worship so coming to mordecai and And why he refuses to bow down to haman? Maybe we can just quickly look at the details We would it's it's a it's a rather, you know long background story Exodus chapter 17 verses 8 to 15 Over there we get to know that there is a race of people called the amalakites After the you know israelites cross the red sea and come to the other side The amalakites come and attack them The poor israelites have not done anything They are very happy that goddess saved them rescued them and they're just minding their own business And the amalakites take advantage of these helpless people and they come and attack them And so at that time, you know, you have Moses standing with his hands raised up and then god gives them victory all of that takes place So ever since then the amalakites were enemies of the people of israel And then we learn something in first Samuel chapter 15 versus one to three There god speaks to sol and god says i want you to attack these amalakites And destroy everything that belongs to them and the lord also says Put to death the men and the women and the children and the infants So the lord says if all the people and their positions must be destroyed But sol, you know, as we know he was greedy he and his soldiers did not want to destroy the valuable cattle and so they save the cattle And they also save the king and this is the name of that king in first Samuel chapter 15 verse 9 We get to know now it says but sol and the armies paid agar Who was the king of the amalakites? So agar A g agi Yeah, it's the man's name agar was the king of the amalakites And now when we come to Esther chapter three verse one We get to know that haman is the son of hammedata the agar guide So that is the background haman is an amalakite a descendant of this king agar And so mordecai does not want to show him respect because mordecai is a self-respecting israelite He's a benjamite and he does not want to bow down to haman Who is an amalakite who has been in you know because the amalakites are enemies of the israelites and so he refuses to do that and This is what the people say to you know haman Esther chapter three versus three and four If someone could read out for us Esther three versus three and four In fact even five and six. Yeah, Esther three from verse three up to verse six, please The time of haman is on the scene where the mordecai will not stand for his own goal again that he wants it to and when haman saw that mordecai is known for the or three and four of us they To live against All right, so here we see that um In verse four the It says therefore they told haman about it To see whether mordecai's behavior would be tolerated For he had told them he was a jew So they just want to see what haman's reaction will be when he gets to know about this So they go and tell haman, you know what this is official Me mordecai is a jewish person and he refuses to bow whenever you you know whenever you're passing by We've told him again and again that he should do it But he refuses to do it and you know what he's a jew So they're just deliberately instigating haman and so this is haman's response When it says in verse five when haman saw that mordecai would not kneel down To pay him honor He was enraged and then it says in the next verse Yet having learned who mordecai's people were He scorned the idea of killing only mordecai So once he gets to know that mordecai is a jew You know, he's he decides where's the point in only killing this one jew Let me kill the entire race Because you know, there's this enmity between the amalekites and the israelites So he he scorns the idea of killing only one single person He decides let me wipe out the entire race. Okay, so now the question is this Uh, there's no answer given no clear answer given in the bible. But the question is this Was it a wise decision of mordecai? To refuse to just show respect to the official If he had done that He would have there would have been no crisis The jewish people would not have gotten into trouble in any way Now we do not know whether he was justified in in you know in opposing haman in this way or not But in the new testament, we do have an instruction being given by Jesus in matthew chapter 10 Versus 16 to 20 Matthew 10 16 to 20. This is the advice that the lord jesus gives He says i'm sending you out like sheep among wolves Therefore be as rude as snakes and as innocent as dowse be on your guard So the lord says be very careful in your interactions with these wolves You're like sheep and i'm sending you out among these the wolves of this world So be very very wise Be careful how you deal with them be on your guard and the lord goes on to say You know, you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them So when you're standing in front of them and you have to witness to them about me Be wise in the way you're doing it and you know, he you know, he he comforts them He tells them don't worry what you know at that time You don't worry about what you have to say because the holy spirit will help you to say the right words so Paul followed a postal paul followed this policy Whenever he met you know with festus the governor and all this other roman, you know top You know officials and Leaders he always spoke to them most respectfully. He never He never instigated them unnecessarily You know, so we see a postal paul being very diplomatic in the way he dealt with these leaders And in fact, even in the Old Testament the advice which Jeremiah gives to the exiles who have gone to Babylon You know Jeremiah sends a letter to them to the to the exiles who have gone to Babylon And he writes to them in Jeremiah 29 verse 7 He says seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile Pray to the lord for it because if it prospers you too will prosper So even in the book of Jeremiah The advice which the lord gives through Jeremiah to these people in Babylon is live over there in peace Don't unnecessarily create riots and rebellions So was mordecai justified in in deliberately instigating haman by refusing to bow We do not know if the lord himself told him do not bow then. Yes. He's totally justified in not bowing down to haman But if he was just simply acting out of his own, you know, thinking Then maybe it was not a very wise thing to do. He got an entire nation into trouble by doing that So today when we are living in difficult times when we are living in the midst of persecution Let us be like, you know, Jesus says let us be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as dowse Let us not be sinful or crooked Or, you know hypocritical Let us be innocent as dowse. But also let us be as as wise as snakes Let us be careful like opposed to paul in the way we deal with the authorities, you know, who are non christians So that we don't create problems for the entire church this action of mordecai brought havoc upon the heads of the entire nation You know people who had not done anything harmful Now they were in no at the risk of death because of the actions of this one man So we as believers must be careful in our conduct And I think it is good to be respectful in our conduct and not unnecessarily instigate those who are in authority. All right, so That's just my viewpoint, of course, you know So you have you have the total freedom to have a another opinion. That's that's totally all right Okay, moving on very quickly to Esther and the role that she played in all of this How much time do we have? It's always a fight for time in this class Okay You know Esther was living in a very privileged position Because she had she had been made the new chief queen of a very powerful nation I mean imagine this was an empire which was extending all the way from egypt up to the borders of the indian subcontinent I mean, this was like a really vast nation and um, you know in chapter one it talks about that That you know that grand One month function which this king throws and it talks about how all the people were, you know, it says in verse six Chapter one verse six It talks about how the people were sitting on on couches made of gold and silver and in the you know historical records of herodotus we get to know that these couches You know the these these chairs which were made of gold It was not this gold coating that are actually made of solid gold because when when you know zeres goes to To Greece to conquer that's the capital city, you know, once they are able to Establish themselves over there They they bring some of their things from persia and they actually bring solid gold couches and you know chairs to sit on and herodotus records this so This man zeres was that rich extremely rich And esther is big has become the chief queen Of that kind of a nation. So she's in a rather powerful comfortable position And now modica is asking somebody like her to put her entire life at risk her entire future at risk and um So he says, you know go and appeal to the king on behalf of your people And this is what esther says. So I think we need to look at that Esther chapter 4 verse 11 if someone could read out esther 4 verse 11 Whoever started reading first yeah continue yeah All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces Know that any man or woman who goes into inner court to the king who has not been called He has but one law put to put all to death except the one to whom the king holds Out the golden scripture that he may leave a time myself have not been called to go into the king these 30 days Okay, so esther points out, you know how risky it is for me to try and go to the king's court without having got prior permission Uh, if I do that there's a chance that you know, he may actually have me killed And so one point that she makes in the very last sentence for 30 days the king has not even asked about me So which means at the moment he's found some other distractions at the moment. He's not really interested in me So now when he has not even shown any interest in me for the last 30 days If I go into the court without any permission The chances are that I may get killed. So you see she is actually at risk and We get to know in you know in the through those historical records of herodotus that only seven Noble families were allowed to freely go into the court whenever they want Okay, so if you're a member of one of those seven royal families now, then I think they're part of the aristocracy So those seven families are allowed to go into the king's presence whenever they wish Apart from that if anyone wants to go they first have to go to the kilyar can get permission To see the king and who is the kilyak over here haman She can't possibly go to haman and say, you know, I want to approach the king because haman will ask Why do you want to go and see him?  She cannot take the legal procedure Approaching the kilyar getting permission and then going and seeing the king She just has to do it without any permission And there's a risk involved because the king has not been showing any interest in her, you know in the in the recent past So she takes that risk and she says, all right, you know, everyone please fast and pray for me And if I perish I perish. So that is the beautiful stand that she takes Because sometimes when we take a you know stand for the lord Yes, great miracles happen and the lord saves us miraculously But then there are some who became martyred, you know, so not everyone had a miracle rescuing them So esther decides Maybe the lord will do a miracle and I will be saved on the other hand Maybe the I would have I will have to martyre my life either way I'm willing to take a stand for the lord and so she decides to play her role So we all have this choice We can stand on the sidelines and just watch or we can say no I want to be part of what god is doing and if I perish I perish so be it So, uh, it's a choice that esther makes over here and we two are called upon to you know, um, uh, to Take that step And so we see that in this particular case, uh, the king he shows favor So he chooses to extend his golden skeptor So when he extends his golden skeptor towards that person, it means that yes I'm willing to listen to what you have to say, you know, so she's uh, she gets favorable treatment from him and um, you know, I mean, we know the rest of the story how Uh, it is haaman who gets hung on the pole which he has prepared for the hanging of mordecai So he prepares this pole for mordecai to be hanged on upon it But instead he's the one who ends up being hung on it. Uh, so god turns everything around Uh, so we see god sovereign control over the entire situation Um, um and his love and faithfulness towards the people Even though they were living in exile. Why were the people in exile first of all? It's an act of punishment of divine judgment. The people had not been faithful to the lord They had gone to such an extent that the temple was in disrepair The they did not even have a copy of the of the book of the law in their hands They had forgotten about the the sacrifices of the lord And due to their terrible sin god sends them into punishment into exile But while they are living in exile, he continues to be faithful towards them God never punishes his people because he hates them God never punishes his people because you know, he wants to destroy them He only punishes people as discipline in the hope that they will humble themselves and come back to him So You know, this is a beautiful, you know message to remember When the lord is disciplining us for something that we have done You know, we may think that god is angry now god will not care about me anymore. God will hate me No, whenever god disciplines, he's disciplining not to destroy us But to give us a chance to humble ourselves and come back to him So here these people who are living in exile people like mordechai people like ester The you know nehemiah all these faithful people who chose to repent and humble themselves and stay true to god These people even though they were in exile they rose up to top positions. God blessed them God protected them god used them for his purposes. So We never have to feel condemned when god disciplines us. He only discipline disciplines us for our own good, you know So, um, these are some of the lessons that we can learn from the book of ester So, um, yeah, maybe, you know, we can Leave early for the for our break unless of course someone has any question If anyone wishes to raise a question You can do so Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were they, uh, you know, when they refused and they refused to Bow down to the image of the king Was that right or wrong? Now that was clearly for worship. The image was constructed Uh, as though he is a deity as though he is a god and so obviously Had bowed to that that would be an act of worship. That would not be a cultural practice at all Uh, because very clearly, uh, you know, he Declares himself to be a god and he wants to be worshipped. Uh, so yeah, we will not we cannot compare that with this here when jacob bow down to esau and uh, when, you know, uh, the people official officials were bowing down to haman It was more a cultural practice rather than, uh, treating haman as a deity In fact, the king would have been very upset if haman had declared himself to be a deity. So no Yeah, the scenarios would be, uh, different. All right. Uh, so we'll take our break now and um, You know, because basically the bell has gone off over here. So yeah, go ahead


Hello and welcome to the session. In this session we discuss the following question which says simplify 60.2 minus 102.356 plus 170.45 minus 25.3. Let's see the solution now. We need to simplify 60.2 minus 102.356 plus 170.45 minus 25.3. First we shall convert the given decimals into like decimals. So this can be written as 60.200 minus 102.356 plus 170.450 minus 25.300. So this is further equal to 60.200 plus 170.450 minus 102.356 plus 25.300. First we shall add both these decimal numbers and so on adding these two decimal numbers we get 230.650. So this is equal to 230.650 minus. Now let's add both these decimal numbers. So on adding these two decimal numbers we get 127.656. Now when we subtract these two decimal numbers we would get that is 230.650 minus 127.656 and in subtracting we would get now 10 minus 6 would be 4 then 14 minus 5 would be 9 then 15 minus 6 would be 9 then 9 minus 7 would be 2, 2 minus 2 would be 0 then 2 minus 1 would be 1. So this would be equal to 102.994. So this is our final answer 102.994. This completes the session. Hope you have understood the solution of this question.


Welcome to the World Radio Communication Conference 2023, WRC 23 being held in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for a great pleasure of being joined in the studio by Aiman Mohyeddin, who is the head of spectrum standardisation for Nokia. Aiman, welcome to the studio. Thank you for your kind invitation. Nokia is a member of the ITU radio communications sector. Why is this conference important to Nokia? Very good question. And the beauty of it is that the spectrum is a lifehood of the old wireless communication. And the WRC is the one deciding on those spectrum waves. So for us, it's quite important to be part of the discussion here, to look at the spectrum allocation, which is we wanted to have to implement it in our equipment. But most importantly, that if we look from a WRC perspective in the past years, we have seen that the WRC have been very good in allocating spectrum for mobile communication. And one good example, for example, it harmonise all those spectrums.  So coming from Germany up to here, I can use those spectrums. Thanks to those past WRC in making this possible to have a roaming capability, harmonise spectrum. And this is important for the whole mobile industry, the decision that will be taken at the WRC. You're quite right. WRCs are all about spectrum allocation. What spectrum areas are of interest to the equipment and infrastructure industry? And how do they impact your industry? We can take it from a different angle, but maybe let's start from the angle which is quite important for the future. I2R, the radio sector, recently have adopted a resolution on a discussion on a 60 IMT 2030. We have as well approved the framework recommendation. And this is also setting the scenes and the roadmap for the 60 future. Importantly, in this WRC, we are also going to see some discussion about agenda item 10, which is we are going to discuss the future studies to be done. And it's important to have the right study bands for the future, the use of 6G to be studied in this WRC. Let's talk a little bit about 6G. What difference will it make? There's a big difference when you go from 3G to 4G and from 4G to 5G. But will 6G really make that much difference? Definitely, absolutely. It will make a big difference because you are going to have an ultra-reliable network with ultra-low latency. But importantly is that in 6G we are concentrating on sustainability and you've already mentioned that we have COP28. So with the right spectrum that can provide capacity coverage and as well pretend sustainability, that will be fantastic. What are some of the outcomes that your segment of the industry would like to see emerge from WRC 23? It will be important, often important of the evolution of the 5G. We have started the journey of 5G. It's important to give the 5G and the evolution of the 5G new spectrums to grow on it and to flourish in it. For example, the upper 6GHz. So it's quite important to see a decision and regret the conditions that enable macro-cellular deployment of 5G. And the upper 6GHz is such a kind of a band that can offer capacity and coverage. So we are looking forward to see that the upper 6GHz is going to be identified in this WRC. That will give the path for the 5G evolution as well, be it the way for initial deployment in the 6G network. Most importantly also we have to think about having studied some bands for the future and having that the right setup for the agenda item 10 that will paint a colourful future for 16, which we are looking forward to see. We are looking forward to see a WRC decision in that direction. Thank you so much for joining us in the studio and thank you for being here at the conference. We look forward to catching up with you again in the not too distant future, I'm sure. Thank you very much. Thank you. And if you've enjoyed this interview then why not check out our other interviews on our YouTube channel as well as our podcast on our podcast channels, Spotify, SoundCloud or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And for further information visit our website at www.itu.it. Thanks for tuning in.