_{It has already been awhile since the platform started running normally again.}

_{The downtime hit me hard, but I think I'm finally ready to talk about it.}

7:00 p.m.

^{I just wanted to see what I missed.}

No dice.  I was given an error screen, so I pressed the refresh button repeatedly, for about fifteen minutes.  On the sixteenth minute, I closed my laptop.

I didn't know what else to do with my life so I got up from my chair and headed to the window.  Birds, everywhere.  They reminded me of the bird pictures I used to see on Steemit, so I went back to my laptop only to be met with the same damn error screen.

7:30 p.m.

^{My entire world came crashing down.}

I noticed how all of the other places were loading up just fine so there was no need to call technical support just to be told to shut off my router, then wait, then turn it back on.

Since there wasn't anyone around to talk to, I called anyway.  The man with the accent explained to me how the site must be down.  That made me depressed.  He then said politely, "Please, sir, do not do the cry."

That was the last time I heard his voice.

8:00 p.m.

^{There was a knock at the door.}

With tears still streaming down my face, I answered.

"Is everything okay in here?  I could hear screaming," said the neighbor.

She looked like a mirage through the waterfall of tears now clouding my vision.  "No! Everything is not okay," I yelled while slamming the door in her face.

The woman refused to leave.  "Let me in! Let's talk about this," she said as I was inside doing other things meant to distract me away from the fact some crazy lady was outside talking to my door.

8:30 p.m.

^{I forgot to lock the door.}

She walked in and found her way to the corner of the living room where I was sitting, naked, rocking back and forth, slamming a bottle of vodka.  "Mind if I pour a drink," she asked.

I gave her the bottle and said I don't have any clean cups.  She threw a blanket my way and invited me over to the table.  I covered my shame, dried my face, then sat with her.  We talked about the other neighbor and laughed about how she drags a leash around pretending to walk an invisible dog.

Things were looking up.

Once I realized I was sitting naked in my dining room with the hot, drunk, neighbor chick; and she didn't seem to care; there was nothing left to cry about.

9:00 p.m.

^{Now she wants to know about my life.}

"What do you do?  This is a nice house and I never see you leave for work in the morning.  Please don't tell me you have weed plants growing in the basement," she laughed while pretending to open the door that leads downstairs.

I tried to explain my situation.  I mentioned the art and her eyes lit up as she started looking around the room trying to locate my work on the walls.  "It's digital," I said.  "Most of what I've produced can be seen on that laptop," I explained.

Without asking first, she opened my laptop.  The room lit up, I hissed.

I didn't mean to hiss.  I don't normally hiss.  This was all new to me.  The sound just came out automatically.  She had opened the laptop to reveal that damn error message and I wasn't prepared to go back into that state of reality so abruptly.

9:15 p.m.

^{This woman must be desperate, I thought.}

She was unfazed by the hissing.  Me making that sound was the only thing on my mind.  I sat there, thinking about it in silence as she stared at me.  I was embarrassed.

"I think you've had enough," she said to break the silence as I poured another two shots of vodka directly down my throat.  "I'll make some tea," was the last thing she said to me.

That kettle didn't take long, I saw the steam, which triggered flashbacks of the Steem error screen.  I hissed again.

She turned around, showed me her true form.  This was no neighbor!

I had to protect my home so I lunged for the nearest steak knife!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

9:30 p.m.

^{I made a huge mistake.}

I'd open the laptop, see the error message.  I'd look at the kitchen floor, and see the other error message.

The world; it was trying to tell me something.

10:30 p.m.

^{Another knock at the door.}

I hadn't moved from my seat for nearly an hour.  I sat, I stared, I drank, I sat, I stared, I drank, I sat, I stared, I drank.  The knock rattled my bones and set my adrenaline into rush mode.

I grabbed her by the feet, dragged her to the basement door, opened the door, pushed her limp body down the stairs, shut the door.  Then I opened the refrigerator, grabbed the ketchup, sprayed it everywhere, and threw the bottle down with force.  It broke, as planned.

So now my kitchen looked like a simple hotdog making mishap.  These happen all the time.  Nothing unusual to see here.  I simply dropped the ketchup.

10:34

^{I opened the door.}

"Have you seen my wife," asked the neighbor.

I told him the truth, except I left out the part about how she's dead.  He asked to come inside, I said, "Sure, come on in."

"It's not like her to leave without telling me where she's going," he said, as I handed him a sealed bottle of vodka.  "I don't drink," he proclaimed, rather proudly, as if he was accomplishing something grand by denying my hospitality.

"You said she's here, so where is she?"

I didn't like the sound of his breathing.

10:40 p.m.

^{I strangled him until the gurgling stopped.}

I learned that move watching UFC pay-per-views at the bar.  Always wanted to try it, plus it's much easier to wrap a garbage bag around someone's head and tape it securely, when they're unconscious.

Once that was all said and done, I dragged him to the basement, noticed the kitty licking up some of the mess so I said, "Good kitty," opened the door, pushed him down the stairs, closed the door.  Then I tried to sign in to Steemit.

Still nothing!

Midnight

^{Time to clean up.}

I had spent the previous hour with the music cranked, dancing around the house, naked, hoping to burn off whatever was left of that adrenaline rush.  It worked, and that's good, because I had a job to do that required steady hands and a clear mind.  When you're chopping up bodies with an ax, you don't want to slip or miss because that blade can go straight through your shin.

The floor down there in the basement is concrete so I couldn't dig graves.  Little bits and pieces fit nicely into the weed pots though, so I fed those folks to the plants.

6:00 a.m.

^{All finished.}

Back upstairs, in the kitchen, kitty had most of the blood cleaned up.  He ate around the ketchup.  Typical cat.

I decided to leave the laptop alone.  I was tired anyway and assumed if the place was down all night, I didn't miss much anyway.  It was time to go to sleep.

Slept like a baby!

2:00 p.m.

^{Hooray!  I can blog!  The place works again!}

It's no secret, for most of us, this place plays a huge role in our lives.  Sometimes things happen though, there will be problems, and it's always good to keep in mind there is life outside of this life here.

If the place goes down again, always remember: You can read a book, watch a movie, go for a walk, kill the neighbors; anything!  Anything to keep your mind occupied and worry free.  It's not the end of the world!

Have a nice day.

Credits: _{All images seen here were produced digitally, by me. "Couldn't compete with fireworks and paid programming today. Sorry."}

^{© 2018 @NoNamesLeftToUse.  All rights reserved.}