At the LLU Job Site: The Adventures of Pokémon

INTRODUCTION

Kids, this section is just for you! Let me introduce you to Pokémon and his friend Liz. Liz is the only female that works on the construction site and one of her responsibilities is being the caretaker of Pokémon. Since the existing Children’s Hospital overlooks the construction site, the Children’s Hospital in partnership with the McCarthy Building Company has given Pokémon a very special job. Along with the help of Liz, Pokémon is moved all around the pit so that the kids in the hospital can look for him and familiarize themselves with what is going on down in the big, deep pit. Perhaps you have seen Pokémon or looked for him from your hospital window.  This section of the website is dedicated to the children who are hospitalized at the Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital. Because Pokémon is little, he is not allowed to go down into the pit area where the men are working and the big machines are. On rare occasions, Liz has taken Pokémon down to the bottom of the pit but takes him right back up to hang around along the wall where it is safe. Liz and Pokémon has a friend (the chronicler), who has a great imagination and has created, just for fun, a make-believe story about Pokémon and his delightful adventures in and around the construction pit. Chapter 1 is entitled “Hanging Out Around the Pit.” Because The Adventures of Pokémon is make-believe, most of the things you will see and read about him doing are actually done with a computer to make his adventures look real. ENJOY!

THE ADVENTURES OF POKÉMON

Chapter 1 – Hanging Out In and Around the Pit

TAOP1 – 1
Pokémon began his day standing on the northwest side of the shoring wall while “supervising” some men digging a very deep trench down in the pit. He couldn’t figure out why caretaker Liz put him in that spot. It must be important work, he thought.

TAOP1 – 2
Because he could not see very well from that high shoring wall, Pokémon walked down the stairs and sat at the bottom of the scaffolding so that he could get a better look. He knew that he should have asked caretaker Liz but he was sure that it would be okay with her if he didn’t go any further than the last landing.

TAOP1 – 3

Wow, when Pokémon got to the bottom landing and looked around, he couldn’t believe how deep the big pit really was. He saw the men working, he saw the big machines digging holes, scooping dirt, and then something caught his eye. Right there in the middle of the pit, he saw a BIG puddle of water. Wow, he thought, I think I would like to play in that puddle. Without even thinking what Liz the caretaker would say, he ran as fast as his little legs could run. Soon he was kicking up mud and it became harder to run. As he came closer to the puddle, the mud turned into muddy water and his little feet started to slip and slide. Suddenly he felt a splash or two then more splashes. Pokémon didn’t seem to mind because he was having so much fun and before he knew it, he was standing, huffing and puffing, in the middle of the mud puddle. After catching his breath, Pokémon looked all around. The mud puddle was bigger than he had thought. He looked down at his feet and they were covered with mud. In fact, as he looked at his reflection in the puddle, he could tell that there were muddy splotches all over his body.  OH, NO, he thought. He knew Liz, his caretaker, would be VERY upset when she came looking for him. When Liz found little Pokémon, she laughed and laughed. Then she stopped laughing because she suddenly realized where she had found her little friend. . . RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PIT.  She picked up Pokémon and said: “Come on, YOU ARE IN A HEEP OF TROUBLE YOUNG MAN!” As caretaker Liz walked up the long flight of stairs, she didn’t say a single word. He knew that caretaker Liz was really upset. Pokémon broke the silence and said to Liz: “I’m really sorry, I distobeyed you. I won’t do that ever again. I PROMISE!”

TAOP1 – 4

Suddenly caretaker Liz propped her little friend against the back of the water truck and shook her finger at Pokémon. “I forgive you, she said, Don’t do that ever again. I don’t want you getting hurt down in that big pit. Stay up here where I can keep an eye on you.” Before Pokémon could call out, “I DON’T WANT A BAAAAAATH,” Liz had washed all the mud off of him and then she said: “Pokémon. I’m going to let you dry off in the sun.” Before caretaker Liz left she smiled and hugged little Pokémon and said: “You be careful now. I don’t want to have to keep one eye on my job and the other eye on you.”

TAOP1 – 5 
After drying off, Pokémon decided to walk over to the big red wall where Jack (Left), the project assistant superintendent, and Max (Center) project general superintendent were hanging out. Pokémon (right) who had appointed himself as the project superintendent of adventures and visual graphics asked his friends to pose for the camera. Upon seeing the photo, Pokémon said with a sigh: “Me and Mr. Max are smiling big but Mr. Jack must be smiling inside his beard.”

TAOP1 – 6
After hanging out with his superintendent friends, Pokémon jumped over the red wall to see what all the racket was about down in the pit. Wow, he said to himself, there was a big front loader coming slowly up the new ramp with a full bucket of dirt. Right below him was a worker man hanging for dear life from some big nails as he plugged a hole with gray looking goop, YUK!

TAOP1 – 7
Hopping back up on the red wall, Pokémon saw three workers talking. One of the workers, he thought, must be very important because he had different colored rolls of tape hanging from his belt along with some other tools. Pokémon was getting tired but he thought he would lumber over and see what these important men were up to. He waved and said “hi, what you up to?” but they kept on talking. They were using some big words that he didn’t really understand. Words like “slope, grade, gravel, and asphalt.” I think I’ll go take a nap, he said to himself as he turned around to look for a good place to take a nap.

TAOP1 – 8
Going back to wherever he was going in search of a place to take a nap, Pokémon found a bunch of big, heavy Isolator Pen Sleeves. He decided to jump into one of the sleeves and hide. Maybe, he thought this would be a great place to take a nap.  Suddenly, he heard voices. Just as he scrunched down inside, he had a wondrous idea. I will jump up and scream SURPRISE and scare the worker men. As he listened he could tell they were getting closer. Pokémon counted to five to himself and jumped as high as he could and screamed the loudest scream he could scream. The men jumped with fright andPokémon laughed and laughed until he thought his sides would burst. After several more rounds of scaring the workers, Pokémon could hardly keep his eyes open so he decided to find a place to take a nap.

TAOP1 – 9
Not far away from the Isolator Pen Sleeves Pokémon spotted a mini excavator with its bucket resting on the ground. This would be a great place to take a nap he thought. He was so tired, he crawled into the bucket and closed his eyes. Suddenly he heard the whumpa-whumpa-whumpa-whumpa sound of a helicopter as it flew overhead. He was too sleepy to even to look up to see where it would land. He knew it would land on either the Children’s Hospital or the adult hospital like he had seen so many times before. The whumpa-whumpa sound faded into a very relaxing whup-whup-whup-whup. Pokémon fell fast asleep and during his . . .

TAOP1 – 10
. . . nap, Pokémon dreamt that a big helicopter flew over and picked him up and took him high in the air. He could see
all the workers in the construction pit, the cars on Barton Road, he could see the Children’s Hospital, the Loma Linda University campus, and he could see the mountains covered in snow far, far away. When he awoke from his nap, he was still in the bucket and he realized that he had spent the whole night in the bucket. As Pokémon set up, he stretched and yawned. Suddenly he heard a sound that he had never heard before it was like a clink, clank, smash, clink, clank. What is that noise, he asked himself, as he looked all around.

TAOP1 – 11
Not far from the excavator, Pokémon saw the source of the noise. A great big concrete truck and a pump. As he hurried toward the truck, the clink, clank, smash, clink clank noise got louder and louder. He saw three men craning their necks trying to see something. Pokémon jumped up onto a piece of metal and craned his neck to see what the men were looking at. All of a sudden he heard a swish and a then a plop. There right in front of all of them was some gray looking wet dirt with some rocks in the goop.  One of the men scooped a handful of the gray goo[ in his hand and looked at it. Suddenly, he said: “Looks good to me, I think this is a good batch of concrete.” As Brian (that the name on his hard hat) slung the concrete toward the hopper more concrete swished down the chute through the grate and into the hopper of the pump. Now that Pokémon’s curiosity had been satisfied, he climbed down from the hopper and wandered off in search of a new adventure. But before he went very far, Pokémon heard another sound a swish, swish sound that seemed to be coming up from the pit. I wonder what that sound is, he asked himself.

TAOP1 – 12
He carefully walked to the edge of the west shoring wall and knelt down to get a better look. “WOW, LOOK AT THAT,” Pokémon hollered out to no one in particular. He could see the source of the noise: swish, swish, swish. Hey, he said to himself, there is Rudy in the white uniform holding that big hose. So that is where all that concrete is going. What a mess Pokémon said to himself. Wait till I tell caretaker Liz. She will have to hose them off for sure. 

TAOP1 – 13
After a long lunch and a little nap, Pokemon saw a crane offloading a VERY big piece of steel from a big truck. He thought it would be fun to hop up on the steel and take a ride. He heard some loud noise and one of the men shout: “Careful, careful, slowly, easy does it.” He jumped up on the truck and sat on the big piece of steel. Then he heard a noise like a metal wheel turning and then he felt the steel beneath him move.  “Easy does it,  careful,” he heard a man call out. Sure enough, Pokémon realized he was going up in the air with the big piece of steel. Wow, this is really fun he thought. Soon the big piece of steel (an Isolator Base) was on the ground and he was told to get off by a grumpy worker. As he walked off, Pokémon said to himself that man should have had a nap!

TAOP1 – 14
As Pokémon rounded the corner he saw a big crane lifting some heavy equipment. He got very excited and ran to jump on the Scissor Lift. He made is just before the crane lifted it into the air. Before he got very high in the air, the crane put the lift on the ground and the worker holding the rope told him to get off. The crane was going to lower the Scissor Lift into the pit and “Pokémon, you aren’t allowed in the pit,” said the man who was holding the rope. Man, thought Pokémon as he walked away, Liz must have squealed on me.

TAOP1 – 15
This place is more fun than Disney Land thought Pokémon as he wandered off to nowhere in particular. Just then he saw another crane pick up a dumpster and he thought, I’ve never taken a ride in the dumpster before, I think I”ll take a ride while I have a chance. Pokémon had barely gotten off the ground when Nathan discovered him in the dumpster. Nathan turned around and hollered at the crane operator to lower the dumpster so that he could lift Pokémon out. “Don’t let me catch you doing that again young man. You know you are not allowed in the pit!”

TAOP1 – 16
Pokémon wasn’t very happy. Everyone was taking away his fun ideas. Then he saw some men working on the boom of a VERY BIG crane. Wow, he thought, maybe they will let me help.  And so he joined the men who were not very talkative, but it was fun watching them swing the sledgehammers.

TAOP1 – 17
After what seemed like hours and hours, the big boom for the big crane was completed. This time Pokémon asked the crane operator if he could take a ride before the crane was placed in operation. The crane operator told Pokémon to climb up on the boom and he would take him for a short ride. WOW MAN Pokémon squealed with delight. LOOK AT ME!

TAOP – 18
After a very long day, caretaker Liz put Pokémon on the top landing of the scaffolding
stairs where he would spend the night. As the sun was about to set, one of the tower
cameras caught Pokémon looking out over the construction pit toward the Children’s
Hospital. As caretaker Liz told Pokémon good night, he told her: “I will say a
little prayer for all of the boys and girls who are spending the night in the
Children’s Hospital and I’ll tell them to SLEEP TIGHT and I’ll see them in
the morning.

~ The End of Chapter 1 ~

Chapter 2 – Pokémon Goes To the BIG Concrete Pour

TAOP2 – 1
Well kids, Guess what? On Friday, April 28, 2017,  Caretaker Liz told Pokémon that she had a “BIG surprise” for him. Just before she checked out for the day, Liz came to Pokémon and said: “Guess what my little friend, I am going to let you see the BIG cement pour tomorrow night. You missed the first pour back in March, but I think if I keep a close eye on you, it will be okay for you to watch. But” she continued, “Pokémon, you must promise to do everything I tell you to and don’t get in anyone’s way. Do you promise?” Pokémon promised that he would obey caretaker Liz. Then Liz showed Pokémon a picture from the first pour so that he could get an idea of what the pour would look like. “WOW,” said Pokémon, “that is real cool. The pit looks so different when it is lit up at night. I think it looks a little spooky.” And with that,  Pokémon began to jump with delight. He yelled: “I’m so lucky, I CAN HARDLY WAIT FOR SATURDAY NIGHT! YIPPEE, I’M SO LUCKY! After he calmed down, Liz put Pokémon back on the landing overlooking the pit towards the Children’s Hospital.

TAOP2 – 2
There he is. Pokémon is waiting for caretaker Liz up on the scaffolding (upper right corner
of the photo) where he spent the night. He knows in about forty-five minutes Liz will come
and tell him the plans for the all night pour. Pokémon is so excited. He heard the workers
talking about the last pour and he is soooo anxious to see a pour himself. As he waited, he
thought to himself, right where I am is a good spot, I can see the section they
will pour tonight.

TAOP2 – 3
When caretaker Liz arrived for work, the first thing she did was to check on Pokémon. When he saw caretaker Liz he could hardly speak because he was so excited. Liz asked: “Why are you so excited?” Pokémon, jumped up and down and shouted: “Look Liz, LOOK LIZ, SEE THEM, SEE THEM.”Pokémon kept pointing toward the Children’s Hospital. “SEE, SEE, LOOK AT THE WINDOW, he squealed with delight. “Calm down,” she said,  “talk slowly, and tell me again what you want me to see.”Pokémon again pointed toward the Children’s Hosptial and he said very slowly: “SEE THEM, SEEEEEE THEMMMM.” And then Pokémon blurted out: “See the MENIONS, They are in THE WINDOW RIGHT OVER THERE.” He stretched out his little arm as far as he could as he pointed toward the Children’s Hospital. “That window right there, I think I see three Menions.” Caretaker Liz looked and looked and suddenly, she through up her hands and then pointed in the same direction as Pokémon. “I SEE THEM, YES, I SEE THEM.” Liz shouted. “You are right Pokémon,” Liz exclaimed, “and there are three of them just like you said.” Guess what, Liz continued: “There is a Menion with one eye standing on the window sill, and then there is a Menion with glasses standing on his shoulders, and the third is standing on his shoulders and he has glasses, but he is hard to see with the dark shade behind him.” “Wow,” said Pokémon. “What are their names?” asked Liz. “Your eyes are better than mine. “Describe them to me and I tell you their names,” said Pokémon. . . .

TAOP2 – 4
. . . . Liz bent forward and squited her eyes, so she could see. “Well, let me see, the bottom Minion has one big eye in th . . . .” And before she could finish, Pokémon, YELLED, “He is Stuart, MY BESTEST FAVORITE.” “You mean, “He is my favorite,” said Liz. YES, MY FAVORITE. Tell me what the other one looks like,” pleaded Pokémon. “The one on Stuart’s shoulders has . . . . Wait, I think, I know his name,” said Liz. “What’s his name?” Pokémon called out. What’s his name? He asked again thinking she really didn’t know. “He has glasses,” Liz began. “And,” said Pokémon. And before he could say anything else, Liz called out, “He is Dave. Yes, that is Dave for sure.” “Don’t like him much,” Pokémon said softly. “Why don’t you like him? Asked caretaker Liz. “Cuz, he likes rockets missiles. I like rockets but I don’t like missiles.” Without allowing Liz to ask why Pokémon was asking her to describe the top minion. “Well, let’s see, he has glasses too, but I can’t really tell. I think I must put on my glasses. Liz put her glasses on and she said: “YES, I can see all of them better now. We were right on the first two.” “No,”Pokémon said, “I got the first one and you got the second one.” “Whatever,” said Liz as she continued. “He has glasses, but he doesn’t look like Dave. . . .

TAOP2 – 5
“. . . . He doesn’t look like Dave, his hair sticks up and his eyes are rolled up.” “Could be Jorge,” said Pokémon.” Caretaker Liz said to Pokémon: “Don’t you think it was nice of the kids in the Children’s hospital to put the Minions out for you to see?” “I sure do,” said Pokémon, “maybe we can return the favor sometime.”  Liz knelt down next to Pokémon and said, I think we can, I think we can.” Pokémon didn’t know what she meant, but he trusted her to help him return the favor. Then Liz said to Pokémon,–

TAOP2 – 6

–“Before we go down in the pit, I want to show you something that is so very special. Look above the Medical Center, what do you see? “The Moon, the Moon, said Pokémon. It looks like it is going to sleep on top of the Medical Center right above the cross.” “That’s right,” said Liz, “you see when the moon looks like what’s left of a mostly eaten cookie. It’s called a  waxing crescent moon.”

TAOP2 – 7

As Liz and Pokémon were preparing to go down the stair to the pit, Pokémon said: “look Liz, Look at the people at the Medical Center, they are looking at us. “No,” said Liz, “they are waiting for the big pour tonight.

TAOP2 – 8

Before all of the workers came down the stairs to begin their work, caretaker Liz took Pokémon to the foundation, which had been poured last month. “WOW, Pokémon hollered as they made their way down the stairs. “I haven’t been down here since, since, I played in the . . . .the . . . .mud . . . . puddle,” he haltingly said to Liz. “Boy, I shouldn’t have mentioned that,” Pokémon whispered to himself. Standing almost in the middle of the pit, Pokémon turned around and saw the BIG Medical Center that he had so many times seen from above. “WOW!” he exclaimed —

TAOP2 – 9

— “It looks much bigger at night, he continued. Liz said: “Look Pokémon, look to your left, you can see the new parking structure that is still under construction on Barton Road.”

TAOP2 – 10

Suddenly Pokémon heard a bunch of noise and he spun around so fast that he got dizzy and he felt that he was going to fall flat on his face. He saw in a circle, the workers, rebar, concrete, wood railings, dark sky, pump booms, tool chests, wood railings, and bright lights. “Oh those lights,”  Pokémon called out: “Help, help, I’m spinning out of control. I want to get out of here, I fell like I’m going to fall flat on my face.”  “Pokémon, Pokémon,” Liz said in a calm voice. Pokémon interrupted her and asked: “Can we go back upstairs? I want to go back to the landing up there,” he said pointing to where they had just come.

TAOP2 – 11

“Okay let’s go,” said Liz. And off they went toward the stairs. As they walked, Pokémon rubbed his eyes and said, “those lights are sooooo bright, the stairs ahead are blurry. I keep seeing sparkles in my eyes. Can we hurry?”  And so, up the stairs, they went stopping occasionally to let the worker men come down.

TAOP2 – 11

For Pokémon, it seemed like it took forever to get back up the landing. “Can I stay here for a little bit? He asked. “Sure,” said Liz, “You stay right here. I am going guard the gate for awhile, and then I’ll come back and see how you’re doing.” “Okay,” Whimpered Pokémon. “Wow, I’m glad to be back up here.” He whispered to himself.

TAOP2 – 12

After he caught his breath, Pokémon looked over toward a familiar place: The Children’s Hospital. There he saw the window where the Minions were. Yup, they were still looking out the window. Pokémon waived. He couldn’t see well enough yet to see if they waved back. Then he looked higher up on the building was the stick figures: The Children’s Hospital logo. He considered the figures of different colors his friend. They reminded him of safety, caring, love, hope, peace, and friendship. Suddenly, Pokémon got very sleepy. He yawned and stretched, he looked up in the sky, the little sliver of a moon was gone. As he yawned again, he said to himself, I am glad caretaker Liz is my friend, she looks watches out for me. And with that pleasant thought on his mind, Pokémon took one last look at the Minions looking out of the window as he audibly wished the children in their beds a very good night and sweet dreams.

TAOP2 – 13

The next morning, Pokémon woke up with a start. As he stretched and yawned, he looked down below to see what was causing all the racket. OH NO, he muttered to himself, it is the same workers that were starting to make all the racket last night. Aren’t they done yet? Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming up the stairs toward the landing. Then he recognized Liz as she placed her right foot on the landing. “Good morning my little friend. Did you sleep well with all that noise down in the pit?” she asked. “I did,” said Pokémon, “until those orange shirts down below woke me up.” “Now, now,” said Liz, “let’s not be cross. At least you slept last night, those concrete laborers have been working all night. They are VERY tired and they have another two hours before they are finished.” Liz looked and Pokémon and said, “Do you remember last night after we saw the Minions, I told you we might have a surprise for the kids in the Children’s Hospital? Do you remember me telling you that? “Yes,” said Pokémon. “Well,” said Liz, look where I am pointing and tell me what you see.”

TAOP2 – 14

“WOW,” hollered Pokémon, I see someone in a real Pokémon suit.” “That’s right,” said Liz. “Do you know who that is? She asked. “No, I don’t think so, they are too far away and high up on that scissor lift.” “I’ll tell you who that is,” said Liz, “better yet,” she said as she took out her phone. “Here Pokémon, take a look at this picture, I took earlier this morning.” Pokémon took a long hard look at the photo. He twisted his head because the sun was very bright. As he put his finger on the screen, he shouted, “HE IS MR. JACK.” “That’s very good,” said Liz, he has been up there all night directing all the concrete trucks as they drove up to the construction site.” “Wow, that is sooooo coooool,” said Pokémon. Do you think the boys and girls in the hospital saw him?” “I hope so,” said Liz, “I certainly hope so.” With that, Pokémon cried out, “Yippie, I think that was a great surprise for the kids in the Hospital and for me too. Thank you, Liz, Thank you.” He said as he gave Liz a GREAT BIG Pokémon hug.

~ The End of Chapter 2 ~

(TO BE CONTINUED  WITH CHAPTER 3)