Sounds like we’re on the same page.
The model of Flex I had didn’t have this, but some models had a minifridge built into them. I forget whether “built in” was an option, but you could also fit a decent sized mattress into the back as well. While I don’t travel much, I suspect the car would have been fantastic for road tripping; my only concern would have been the battery life, but perhaps that concern would have been unfounded.
I originally justified getting it for two main reasons:
- at the time, I worked on a seven person team that would occasionally go on short trips together and the car could comfortably seat seven
- at the time, I regularly kayaked and the long, flat top seemed perfect for transporting kayaks
Of course, the real reason I got one was that the first time I saw one on the road I said something like “what is that?! I want one!”
Nowadays I want a similar vehicle (or a van as you suggested) but electric. Sadly, while many options matching that desire seem to exist, few or none of them are in the US and even fewer at a reasonable price.
No worries, at least from me, about reviving a dead thread; I appreciate the engagement.
If you scroll through my comment history, you’ll find a few comments about my previous vehicle, a Ford Flex. One of many reasons I miss it is that it had hauling capacity plus enclosure (I’m aware you can get covers for most if not all US pick-up trucks). One time I confidently transported a queen sized mattress within it, for example; every one of the few times I’ve tried to transport anything in an uncovered pick-up I’ve spent the entire drive checking whether the load was still in the bed, but that was never necessary in what was essentially a large minivan.
I think, in the case of the Home Depot truck, I ended up renting a U-Haul (or equivalent) instead.
That does sound very annoying! The first time I noticed my cat doing this, her food and litter box were in the basement, which was stone and dirt in that house. (We put them down there because it was the only place in that house where we could practically prevent the dog from getting to them.) Nowadays the cat stuff is in, essentially, a much cleaner sun porch; as a result, we still have to clean her bowl more frequently than seems reasonable, but it lasts a lot longer than it used to.
My current convection oven is pretty sizable due to having a multitude of functions, so I’m not denying that what you’ve said is certainly a possibility; but most I’ve ever had have been been very basic and only a little bit larger than a slot based toaster. Honestly, in most of my homes, I could have gotten rid of my large oven and replaced it with a convection oven - that would save a lot of space!
I’ve lived in my current house for around eighteen months and only used the full sized oven once (when my wife wanted to make more cookies than would fit in the smaller one). Of course the appliance you should get is the one that fits your use case, but I’ve never regretted getting a convection oven.
This was confusing until the second or third time I saw the post; I’ve never had a toaster with slots, only convection ovens with toaster functionality but also the ability to make bacon. Though for the latter, you’d definitely want some foil or something involved.
They’re probably not as cheap, but I’d definitely recommend a convection toaster over a regular one to almost anyone.
With self hosted email and at least Proton Mail (and probably other paid solutions), you can set up a “catch all” address. With that, any non existing email gets redirected to one; for me, I have spam@domain.com so, while myname@domain.com goes to my inbox, thisaddressisinvalid@domain.com and, I don’t know, walmart@domain.com both go to spam@domain.com. I don’t need an individual entry for every alias and I can specifically block any address that’s particularly spammy or compromised.
I hear that you can have a similar setup with something called SimpleLogin, but I’ve never tried that.
Doesn’t Firefox have reader mode with dark mode built in? Don’t get me wrong, I find that functionality indispensable, but I didn’t think it required a plugin.