I say again: the summer is not actually the best time to drive a convertible. I’ve been treated to a full week of glorious 50+ degree weather, and I’ve been top down for most of it. I think 50 degrees is the bellwether; if it’s 50 or above, and it’s not raining, the top goes down.

It’s spritzes and cheese here at home as the chicken thighs roast in the oven. I’m lucky to be sitting here, feeling pretty blissed out, assembling a list of things that delight me, and sharing them with you.

iPhone Duo Apps

Stephen Robles created a curated site of applications that are ready for the iPhone Duo. If you, like me and Aaron, are on the long wait list for the new iPhone, you can prepare for delivery by checking out if your most trusted apps are ready for the new form factor.

WriteRoom 4 Releases

I had no idea that WriteRoom was going to reemerge, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that it has. WriteRoom was one of the two Markdown-specific apps I started using when Markdown was getting a lot of traction in the nerd space. The other was Byword, which I generally preferred due to the fact that I could post to my Tumblr blog directly from the app (I think it also supported tables first, which I needed when deciding to use Markdown for my report writing at work). But as with TaskPaper, I always appreciated Jesse Grosjean’s attention to detail and style, so I always kept WriteRoom and updated it when the new versions came out.

And hey! WriteRoom 4 is in beta. You can get a steep discount on it during the beta, too, which is exactly what I did. Some observations:

• Typewriter noises: WriteRoom sounds like a clicky mechanical keyboard when you type. You can turn it off, too. I found myself browsing keyboards at Best Buy this afternoon after typing on WriteRoom for a spell.
• Themes: You can set different themes in WriteRoom, depending upon your preferences. The default is a DEC terminal monitor, with screen bend and everything.
• Heading overview mode
• Number Headings: I’m not familiar with this feature from other Markdown apps I’ve used, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any out there. In WriteRoom, headings and their children can be numbered automatically, so rather than having “##” as a an H2 heading in our document, you can see “1.2” or whatever level it would be. It looks great and it’s useful.

There’s more I could say about WriteRoom, but Sunday Serial isn’t the place for a big review. I hope you take a look at it if you’re a Mac user who writes in Markdown, however often that might be.

nvALT Resurrected

Speaking of writing in Markdown, Brett Terpstra has updated his fork of Notational Velocity and made it available for download again. This is to tide Markdown purists until the relaunch of nvUltra, which has been in the works for some time now.

WriteRoom, Lettera, and MarkEdit are three document-based Markdown apps that I’ve used over the years; there are more, including BBEdit and TextMate. Ulysses, which is how I write most of my posts for this site, is a database-based Markdown app.

You can use nvALT to search, create, and edit Markdown documents; you point it at one folder on your Mac, and nvALT lists them in a single window. It’s a great way to employ Markdown files instead of a notes app. Your files are portable, and you can send them to other apps as you see fit. I was a big user of Notational Velocity, and later nvALT, for all of my note taking for years.

Portable Jump Starters

I stopped by our local ShopRite this morning for a couple of things, and there was a woman stranded in the parking lot with a dead car battery. I gave her a quick jump from my car and went on with my day, but it got me thinking about our family’s challenges with car batteries, and the simple solution of a portable jump starter.

It’s an inevitable part of owning a car, having a dead battery. It might happen after a chilly night, when you head out for work after the first frost of the season. It might happen completely out of the blue. I’ve had to drive home suddenly to jump Rhonda’s car, when she got stuck at the vet’s office, and I’ve had to ask for a jump from a coworker in the parking lot at work, apropos of no previous issues with my car.

Once, all four of us were in the waiting line to get onto the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, and when I tried to start the car to board, the battery was dead. I had charged it the night before we left using a trickle charger, but there we were: stuck, and embarrassed. A patient ferry employee came to our rescue with a portable jump starter, and I resolved to get one for myself.

I ordered one on the ferry ride to Delaware, and we picked it up at an AutoZone or Advance Auto Parts on our way to the hotel. We kept it in the trunk of our 2016 Subaru WRX for the rest of its life, as the car was plagued with some battery issues, the cause of which we never figured out. It has come in handy many, many times. In fact, we’ve gotten by without replacing the battery in our Husqvarna riding lawn mower for the past couple of years, relying on the jump starter to get it running. (I can be weirdly cheap about some things.)

I don’t mind relying on the kindness of strangers if I have to, but it’s my preference to be able to help myself.

Every single time.