My New Year is bound to get better. Last night at the start of the count down for the Times Square ball drop - at 8 seconds to go - the power went out due to high winds. It just came back on about 20 minutes ago. Of course, this was 3 minutes after I got up, connected, and started my backup generator. I will be expecting thank you gifts from my neighbors. Next outage they'll want me to connect sooner.
Years back when I bought it, a local electrician wanted very nearly as much to install the equipment to integrate it into the system as the generator cost. I wouldn't pay that so I do it manually.
Kept in my garage with battery charged, it stays clean and ready to use. (Of course, I don't run it in the garage.) This was probably the first time in the last two or three years it was needed.