Stomping Grounds

So my neighborhood is a pretty cool place. It has got a pretty nice population mix, lots of neat and aesthetically pleasing houses, and is a great place to bike and/or run and/or take a walk. I quite like it, and it is a big reason I'm staying in my current digs instead of moving to some slightly more convenient and economical place on State Street or thereabouts. Also, it has its own character, some little spice of self that is distinctly missing from places like the behemoth Suburbia of Shenandoah. Recently in my strolls through my nice little slice of the city, I have noticed a couple of things:

1. It seems to be a trend around the neighborhood to hang windows outside in mid-air where there are no walls (Also, doors, but these are rarer but usually not hanging). This is especially prevalent in the yards of the clearly "quirky" houses, which are generously sprinkled about. Having windows where there are no walls, e.g, just suspended from a tree branch, is somehow slightly disturbing to me, but at the same time it looks kind of neat. Is this a thing? Should I start scavaging for orphaned windows?

2. The cheerily aggressive children selling lemonade streetside are legion. As mentioned previously, I walk around the neighborhood quite frequently, and will go well out of my way to avoid these manic little entrepreneurs--but they are always there. There seems to be an unusually high population on my street especially, which has on multiple occasions kept me inside when I was about to set out for a run. I just can't handle dealing with their smiling, gaptoothed, money-hungry little faces (It is worth noting that I usually range from awkward to mediocre in dealing with salespeople and children, but when you combine these traits I am useless). I understand that this is apparently a common thing throughout Suburbia, but I grew up in a rural-ish area with a dearth of passerby-as-potential-customers, and thus my entrepreneurial spirit was crushed; the ways and manners of these tiny merchants are foreign to me. I tend to deal with them the same way I deal with panhandling bums: awkward smile, sorry, no, um, I only have my card?

Just a couple of observations. Less than a week until I leave for Italy! (Still not ready, I think.)