Russian weather

Winter arrived on time here in Moscow - late October when the temps dropped. We had our first major snowstorm a couple of days ago. In fact, it is the  biggest snowfall in November in 50 years. Hmmm. That doesn't bode well for the rest of the winter. Wait. Anyway, the snow was followed by freezing rain which made walking treacherous, even in my new snow boots, which have a good tread . I must have looked like a duck as I inched my way home on ice-covered sidewalks.
The stairs were the worst. Coming out of the office, they were covered in ice and there was no treatment on them. Approaching the apartment, there are a few stairs to climb. They were covered in ice as well. Luckily, there were some men milling around outside on a work break and one of them came over and took my elbow and matter-of-factly walked me up the stairs. The same thing happened on Wednesday when we went to Zelonograd. There are stairs going down underground to walk under the streets. They get very icy.  A young man behind me, took my elbow and led me down the stairs and then went on his way.
I am considering buying a bag of cat litter at the pet store and putting some in baggies and sprinkling it liberally when needed. What do you think?
This morning (day after ice storm) I woke up to the sound of shoveling. In fact, I heard shoveling on and off all night. They rely on workers to shovel by hand as opposed to using a snow blower.. Until next time, dos vidonya.