To save my/our sanity

I'm going to be brutally honest here.....lockdown has put a bit of a strain on our relationship, it's the result of us being together 24/7.  And before anyone says it, yes I am lucky to still have my husband around, just as he's lucky to have me.  It's not just me, OH feels the same.  Now don't get me wrong, we do love each other, we've been together 40 years next year (38 years married) and have no intention of parting.  But throughout our entire lives together, I've always had hours most days when I've been home alone, and I didn't mind that at all.  When I was working, it was normal office hours, and then part time, whereas husband always worked shifts, generally 12 hours, earlies, lates and nights, weekends included.  Since he's been retired he's worked outside, in our garden or helping elderly neighbours with their gardens, or doing odd jobs for them...he's very sociable and loves to be outside, his whole life is outside really (it's ok, it's not overnight, I don't make him sleep in the shed!).

Well, lockdown curtailed all that, he's not doing nearly as much for neighbours....for the first few weeks he didn't do anything for them at all.  Now he does some brief bits of gardening for them, but no diy - well, not inside their homes.  And when the weather's bad (it's rained a lot on and off here lately) he can't work outside.

So he's been inside with me a lot, and therein lies the problem....he has no interests or hobbies indoors.  So what does he do?  He puts the TV on, does the man thing of sitting there with the remote in his hand constantly flicking through the channels, then falls asleep (medication makes him do that) leaving the TV blaring out daytime rubbish or some repeated car prog that I'm not remotely interested in.  I almost never have the TV on, I prefer to listen to the radio or cds.  He will do the odd bit of housework (he does the hoovering as he knows I find it a problem for my back and hips), even cooking if I ask him to...he used to make the bread but we rarely eat bread now.  So he's here either snoring with the bloody tv playing to itself, or talking at me giving me a running commentary about what he's watching, or cars he's looking at on the computer.  I am SO not interested in cars....you'd think me repeatedly telling him that over the years would have sunk in by now.  I guess it's because he has no one else to talk to, Betty's not that interested either 😂

I have plenty to do during the day - housework (not that I do much of it, just what's necessary), washing, meal planning, cooking.  And I do crafting....crochet, which I generally do mainly during the winter, cardmaking, and now watercolour drawing.  I also like time on the internet, reading blogs and newspapers and watching YouTube videos of drawing and getting new card ideas.

So we've had a few chats about it, and came to the conclusion that husband needs to find a couple of hobbies he can do indoors.  He has no idea what though, I suggested a few things, which didn't really appeal.  So we're going to go to The Range (a big home and garden store which has a large crafting section) and see if there's anything which takes his fancy.  And we might see if the local college is going to be doing any adult education things he might be interested in.  Any other ideas gratefully received!