Picking up the groceries had worked out well, and Charlene had an igloo that would allow her to keep things that needed to be kept cool, cool. To a great degree, she also liked talking with Jacob, and a part of her was even eager to see him again on the weekend would allow her to get his last name. As she was pretty sure that Leona was his mother's first name, but that aside, she enjoyed talking with him. But for now, she had some other errands to run for the morning. There was mail to check and visiting city hall to go through the process of moving her voter registration and pick up a subscription to the local paper. All things that would be needed to help her get started on other aspects of acclimating into Moon Lake.
And some of this wouldn't be completely easy to do, once one figured out Moon Lake's layout... which was something very different from most other cities that Charlene knew. It was built more like a wagon wheel with most of the streets being the spokes that ran out from the center of the town. The only place where there were real intersections were in the center of town with the very central area being a circular park that contributed to the very "connection with nature" that Moon Lake carried as a whole. That was the theme that much of the small town held, and the wagon wheel layout then allowed for it, as on the outer edges of the tow the roads that made the spokes of the "wheel" had houses on them, but there were then woods behind those houses and thus between the houses on one spoke and the houses on another. It was different from what Charlene knew, but she was adjusting and adapting and was happy to accept it so long as Rachel was okay.
So, Charlene then went to the post office that was a "few" blocks away from the grocery. It was on one of the other circular rungs that served like the axel for the wheel in the central area of Moon Lake. From what Charlene had also found was that Moon Lake put their post office, town newspaper, and city hall in the same general area. The errands she had to run here wouldn't last too long and she expected to actually have them done with at most fifteen minutes per stop, and some would take even shorter periods of time. She parked in front of the post office and noted the coin pay slot that was there in the spot. It was something that looked like it was from the 1920s with a metal shaft and a half-moon control panel that was operated by a twist to operate it and with a metal panel that placed on what the cost was for however many numbers of minutes would be needed.
"Must be because of the small town and limited ground space for parking in public places," Charlene mused and began going through her purse and finding the coins needed to pay for the parking. To a degree she was a bit nervous, as in an age of credit cards and debit cards that took money from checking accounts, there was often a lot less reason to carry cash or make change for things, and at times, Charlene often didn't have cash on hand while in Florida, let alone change, as even when she'd had to pay for parking, there was a gate that would accept a credit card. Thankfully, though, as she'd made the drive from Florida to Washington state, Charlene made sure to have cash on hand, as there might be more situations where cards wouldn't be accepted. Thus, she fumbled with her purse before paying for the time she expected to take in checking the mail, handling the newspaper subscription, and handling the change in voter registration.
Going in to check the mail was fairly easy. They had gotten a PO Box and one that Charlene had already sent out all other information on so that her parents would know where they were and the PO Box to send mail to them. It was all something that worked, though for the moment there hadn't been too much that was coming in. After all, it wasn't close to when her auto insurance was due and she'd already made the call to establish the new mailing address, and it wasn't close enough to her birthday, or her daughters' birthdays to expect things from her parents. So, outside of a few “welcome to town” cards that she'd gotten since their arrival in Moon Lake shortly before the start of the school year, there wasn't much in the way of mail.
From there, Charlene went north one building and the entered the offices for the local paper, the “Moon Lake Gazette,” which she figured would provide local coverage on things going on in town and would complement the Seattle Times, which she could read online. She made her way in to find a lone woman manning the front desk in the entry area. The woman looked up to Charlene after a moment and then nodded to her.
"Hello, madam, what can I do for you today?" the woman asked.
"I'd actually like to get a subscription to the paper," Charlene answered, "keep up to date on news in Moon Lake and see if there are any jobs in town that would be available... all things that would be part of the paper, I would assume."
"Well, I don't think we have any openings here at the paper right now, but I can offer the form needed for the subscription," the woman answered, "for how long would this be for?"
Charlene watched as the woman then turned to a grey metal filing cabinet that was behind her. There were a few "flip" noises as the woman flipped the papers in the cabinet, but once done, she then presented a simple form that wasn't too big. Charlene took it and was quick to fill it out, and she answered as she did so.
"I'd go with a year... and with the note that you'd send a renewal notice before it expires," Charlene answered and noted the price, cheaper than the paper that she got in Florida, "do you take a card?"
"Yes, ma'am," the woman answered.
Charlene then went about finishing filling out the form and produced her credit card to pay for the first subscription for the paper. The woman took it and then processed the card.
"Okay, this should be everything," the woman spoke, "it should have everything to go through, though we are a weekly paper, delivered every Monday. I'm afraid you will have to wait for next Monday for your first issue to be delivered."
"That will be fine," Charlene answered, "I've still been moving in and settling in. So, to a degree, I can afford to wait for it. I just wanted to make sure things aren't going too long."
The woman nodded, "Have a good day, and thank you for subscribing."
Charlene then made it back outside and checked the timer for her parking and noted that she had about half an hour left, and thinking she made it through the other two stops a lot faster than expected. She then crossed the street and found that the state government had one small office in the City Hall building that covered voter registration, and while Charlene wasn't entirely aware on Moon Lake or Washington state's politics, she wasn't going to not vote, and the same would apply for Rachel, but she wanted to make sure that the process was easy to handle before bringing Rachel in. That was something fairly easy and Charlene was pleased with that.