Keeping up the humor

If you know my DH, even slightly, you know he is a jokester. His dry sense of humor and poker face comments have you constantly wondering "Huh? Is that a joke? Was he serious?" and then you see the twinkle...and know you have been had. So now, we get to get him back. With his right vision now gone, I asked him "So, if I stand on your right side, do you see only one butt cheek, or just a thinner butt overall?" Knowing the correct answer is imperative here men, so yes, he passed the test.
My DH does not want a dog due to our son's allergies and this has been an ongoing joke in the family. The kids one by one over the years have commented at various times "Mom, can we get a dog?" So I joke back and say "Sure, but Daddy has to move out." So that usually brings the laughs. But the middle kid says to DH "So does this mean we can get a dog?" He cracked up. Then tonight, we are sitting at dinner, and he is doing his famous glum-hands-stroking-head motion that he does when he is deep in thought. He's looking straight ahead, and I am off to the side (on his right) and I start sticking my tongue at him and making silly faces. Absolutely zero response. So I keep doing it. I figure I can now mock my DH and get away with it. All of sudden he starts laughing and says "Yeah, I see you, but I'm trying to keep a straight face." Yup, you get humor where you can get it.
So you know where the women-folk panic a bit when hubby retires? Well, that's gotta be doubled when it is a sudden unforeseen forced retirement. I mean the dude does not know what to do with himself all of a sudden. Now, if this was a PLANNED retirement time frame, my DH would be doing his hobby: building ANYTHING. Or at the gym. Or going to the Museum. Or going to movies which we love. Sadly, some of those favorite things need to be put on hold for the time being. So...what does he do? He gets up, goes to the hot tub (now unfortunately supervised, another independence bites the dust) then eats breakfast, then...goes to lay down and take a nap. Now having been incredibly familiar with grief and the need to curl up into a ball, I recognized that this was a flash point. I need to seize the man up by his boot straps (or in this case by his slip-on shoes) and get his behind out of the house and the need to wallow. I know about wallow. I know it is several times harder to get up when you have wallowed too long. I used to lead a Weight Watcher meeting and I know when a person has a mishap, if you wallow too long, you are almost always destined to repeat the behavior. So...I went over to my DH, pulled the blankies back, got into his sweet face, this man I adore, and said "Get your butt up, we're going for a walk!" So, he gives me his trademark sheepish grin, and says "OK, let's go!"
I felt like we turned a corner...but the left side, we're not ready for a right turn yet...