Yeah that adds up with my experiences. I also read your reply about an external editor, might give it a go, thanks for the suggestion!
For the curious, the text editor I used was Atom and this is what the layout looks like (https://i.imgur.com/jGgl9SM.png). The theme is not the default theme, but it's close to the default layout
Depending on which editor you use, it's also totally possible to make updates to your site while offline (should not be confused to mean your Neocities site while offline). Atom has a live server package that does just this.
My link for Novemberry still works, though it's an unsecured url. http://berry.heartette.net/
Ah -- I think I found the issue then. Because Novemberry is an unsecure URL, the 'HTTPS Everywhere' extension does NOT play nicely with it. With how many unsecure URLs I run into while surfing this community, I might just get rid of the extension, ack!
Just removed HTTPS Everywhere and now I can see the site just fine. Sorry for the false alarm!!