We've had so many outages over the years -- and from my observation it is going to get worse -- that we took the plunge and are having a natural-gas-powered home backup generator installed in a couple of weeks. Yeah, hard to justify the outlay (~$5K), but worth it IMO for general peace of mind.

I managed to borrow a gasoline generator during our last outage in June, and that helped convince me that I didn't want to go that route: heavy to lug around; takes up precious room in the garage; have to check and add oil daily; and still the hassle of going out for gas and refilling it in the rain and mud. My wife and I aren't getting any younger, which added to the incentive for a hands-free, automatic backup.