September has always been those strange 30 days between the heat of summer shenanigans and the dropping temperatures that go with October’s Halloween festivities. Growing up, it meant that I need to get ready for more school, and now it just means that I need to get some clothes at a discount.

This is also going to be my second September covering Suffolk for the newspaper since I first started at the Suffolk News-Herald in February 2017, and there are both new attractions and returning favorites on the calendar.

Taste of Suffolk will once again liven up downtown streets on Sept. 8 with all kinds of delicious food and entertainment for all ages. I’m definitely going to do a couple laps for as many different flavors as possible.

The Suffolk Public Library is going to be celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with dance lessons, treasure hunts and bilingual story time from mid-September to mid-October. Not that I think lessons can actually save my dancing skills, but that’s no fault of the instructors.

Then, at the end of the month, the always entertaining Peanut Fest will kick off with the Queen’s Banquet on the 27th and the Suffolk on the Move 5K run and one-mile run and walk on the 29th, followed by the annual Peanut Fest Parade in downtown Suffolk.

The fall equinox — when the summer is above the horizon for exactly 12 hours of daylight — will kick off the season on Sept. 22. But the longest and best day for me is going to be on the first Sunday of the new NFL season on Sept. 6. My Dallas Cowboys will be playing the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte, N.C., less than five hours away driving from Suffolk. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for Dak Prescott to aim true.

Unfortunately, my memories of football kickoffs are also tied to some of the worst storm weather I’ve seen in Hampton Roads. Last September was the most active month on record for Atlantic hurricanes, according to weather.com, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration determined that the peak of historical hurricane activity has fallen on Sept. 10, four days after kickoff.

Like I said, September is a strange month. It’s parades and festivals, football and hurricanes and some salsa dancing for good measure. I’ll have my camera charged and ready as I do my best to stay out of the rain.