Jason Daniel Depew: Gone way too soon

With his favorite plane, the Icon A5 seaplane

Possibly his first airplane.

This is a hard one to write. In fact, it's so hard to write that I'm going to copy and paste an excellent obituary written by someone else.

Our oldest son, Jason, was a pilot in the United States Air Force. When he quit the Air Force, he became a pilot for Delta Airlines. Jason always kept himself physically fit. The FAA requires all pilots to pass a cardiac health exam every six months. According to the doctors administering the exam, Jason's heart was in great shape.

Except for one day. On Thursday, October 31st, 2024, Jason and his wife, Jennifer, were out on a run. Jennifer turned one way to go home, and Jason turned the other way to go further. Some time later, a neighbor observed Jason running up the street, nearing his home, but "having trouble" as he ran. When Jason was in front of the next-door neighbor's house, he collapsed.

One neighbor called 911. Another neighbor checked his pulse and started CPR. Another neighbor ran to get Jen.

Depending on what statistics you glean from the Internet, only 10% to 40% of people who receive CPR after a heart attack survive. Jason was not one of the lucky ones. By the time the EMTs got there, he was turning blue. They had to shock him twice to get his heart going.

His brain did not recover from the extended lack of oxygen. Jason lingered on life support in the ICU of the Pepin Heart Institute at AdventHealth Tampa for five days, before his family chose to discontinue life support. His death affected many people, starting with his immediate family and radiating outward to touch hundreds, possibly thousands, of people worldwide. 

Here's the official obituary. Tailwinds and strong thermals, my son.

Looking for a good ballpoint pen? Try this one.

Call me old-fashioned, I guess. When I find something that works, I stick with it. For a very, very long time.

The best pen I've ever used was a stainless steel Parker Jotter ballpoint pen. It had two problems. First, genuine Parker refills are expensive, and non-Parker refills are lousy. Second, people borrow it and don't return it, and it's too expensive to give away like that.

The second best pen I've ever used was a Hello Kitty ballpoint pen I borrowed from my daughter and never returned. Its only problem? Hello Kitty merchandise goes in and out of style, and I couldn't find a replacement when mine finally ran out of ink.

The third best pen I've ever used was, and is, a Pilot Better ballpoint pen that my daughter turned me on to after I ran her (I mean my) Hello Kitty pen out of ink. It always writes instantly (no need to doodle swirls in the margin to get the tip warmed up). The ink doesn't ball up or smear, it doesn't soak through paper (even the thin paper that Bibles are printed on), it doesn't fade over time, and it goes precisely where you want it and nowhere else.

The Pilot Better ballpoint pen comes in a capped version and a retractable version, with a choice of medium (1.0 mm) or fine (0.7 mm) point, and three different colors of ink. It has a textured grip, but not a rubber grip. I've tried several pens with rubber grips, and haven't liked any of them, so the Pilot's lack of a rubber grip doesn't bother me.

The Pilot Better Retractable ballpoint pen is cheap, and therefore I don't mind people borrowing mine and not returning it. I can buy a box of a dozen for about the same price as two Parker stainless steel pens.

Finally, it's not made in China; it's made in Japan. That's where Hello Kitty comes from.



Note: This is not a paid endorsement. Parker, Hello Kitty and Pilot don't know I'm writing this, and they're not paying me a single quatloo for my words. See my post, Blogging for Dollars, for my position on endorsements.