Jump Drive

It’s been about three years now that I’ve been waiting to get a basketball hoop up in front of our house. I’ve been waiting for a few reasons. The main one being that I tend to obsess over the smallest things…uggh. The second is, it takes me a while to warm up with a major purchase which in my world consists of anything over $200. The last reason, which is in essence related to the “main reason”, is that I just didn’t seem to be finding the right “hoop”. Our house wasn’t conducive to the “screw a backboard right onto the house” set up. And I still wasn’t sure about a “set in concrete” post because, well, that’s the non-committal part of me I guess. But the problem was that all the portable hoops seemed to be on the el cheapo side. You know the kind. At least around here, in the winds of the Midwest and especially South Dakota, they are the kind that end up with the rim smashed against the driveway pavement after just another “go fly a kite” kinda day.

Fortunately, I had a master plan. I discovered what appeared to be the perfect marriage of a permanent and portable basketball hoop at a nearby Wal-Mart. It had the breakaway rim for when I was of course slammin’ it home on the seven foot setting. It had a large-sized backboard, which for most portable units was not the case. The backboard was even shatterproof acrylic glass, which once again would be perfect when I smacked my head against the same seven foot rim setting while trying to show my son and his youthful friends up in a father vs. the neighborhood game of basketball. I must admit the service at Wal-Mart was swell. The gentlemen was patiently waiting for me to make my “final” decision. I was 99% sure of the one I wanted. But I almost fell into the black hole of obsessing about the 1% of uncertainty. Fortunately my wife was with me, and she helped guide me back on a path of “it’s a blessing to just be able to buy such a thing so stop worrying about whether it’s THE ONE or not”. Once decided, the same gentlemen helped wheel it out to our vehicle and he and I proceeded to fit it snugly in my wife’s station wagon. Unfortunately, that’s where the “customer service” ended.

I’m happy to report my wife and I are quite a team, willing to tackle most any task as long as we’re committed to the task “together”. So we proceeded to take out all 4,583 pieces that were so covertly packed inside the box. About two hours into the madness it occurred to me how lost I felt. No one to call to ask “why isn’t this working?” or “now what?” or “maybe this isn’t the right hoop after all?”. I guess I could’ve ventured back to the Wal-Mart where we purchased the hoop, but as I said before, the service stops at your vehicle’s tailgate. I’m not sure they would’ve been able to offer much in the way of “hoop consultation” at the point I was at.

After a total of five hours, we launched the first shot and no screws came flying off. No backboard came tumbling down on top of us. So I consider the journey a success. But I’m glad it’s not the “well here ya go now you’re on your own…good luck with that!” approach we offer clients of CFgear. We know the entire journey is more comforting, more possible when it’s clear you have a team of branded flash drive experts on your side. We make ourselves and our insight available as much as needed during your flash drive project. To the point that you never have to feel lost and overwhelmed like when I was stuck in the midst of basketball hoop assembly chaos.