28 years, then five flights up.

November 1991 to November 2019. That's a long time to have the same job, in the same place.

I still have the same job, but starting tomorrow, it will be in a slightly different place. Our office moves up to the 19th floor of our building, from the 14th floor. We are taking the whole 19th floor - we never had all of 14 - and there is more usable space, as the 14th floor also held the machinery for the elevators that served 1-13.

The old office was set up for moving paper returns, with big shelves to store tax returns awaiting tick marks from blue and red pencils. Now that our system is paperless (a wonderful advance), we had a lot of wasted space.I will move from a corner office with east and south views to an east-facing office (the corners are reserved for conference rooms and work areas). I will miss the views.

Especially the trains.

Being in one place so long is becoming rare. Dad worked 40 some years in the outboard motor factory. My niece has already had twice as many jobs before age 30 than I have held in my entire life, and I am noticeably beyond 30.

Switching jobs at least has the benefit of keeping you from accumulating things to go through. Like my framed newspapers, including the 1993 flood edition and the "Extra" published when the Soviet coup failed, signaling the end of the Soviet Union.

And of course, the most epochal event of my work life, the 2016 Cubs world series triumph.

Going through my file drawers, I found toys I kept for the boys when they came up to help me around the office.

Also my old certificate for passing the CPA exam:

Much nicer than the laser-printed cheapos they hand out now.

Of course, now they don't make you take the whole thing at once with hundreds of others in a giant basement room reeking of tobacco smoke, panic, and despair, so fair is fair.

I found momentos of my Des Moines career.

I didn't last long enough in St. Louis to get a plastic name tag, but I still have the stapler.

28 years. Even longer than the 13 years or so that I logged off and on at Weltons. Cleaning up, it made me wonder what the last day at the store on top of the hill on Old Grand Avenue was like? Did they sweep the floor just like they did every night when the store would open the next day?

Thoughts like that made me sad, but I brought a helper, making it all go much better.

It's not as though there haven't already been big changes - the biggest being our merger with a bigger regional firm. Still, moving to new space feels like things have really changed.

So new adventures start tomorrow, five flights up.