Winter wallops peninsula

Rosie Vasquez gripped the snowblower handles like her life depended upon them as snowflakes fell on her driveway and the temperature stubbornly hovered at 12 degrees, where it had stood for most of the day.

“This is why I married him,” she said above the roar of the bright orange snowblower, which seemed more ready to go than Rosie. Her husband, Gerardo Vasquez, was offering instructions while relinquishing one of his usual winter responsibilities due mostly to foot surgery.

But he also wanted his wife to have the skills needed to survive a Leelanau winter on her own. Her first lesson came Tuesday, four days after winter’s belated arrived on the Leelanau Peninsula.