We take our dogs on long hikes. Hour and a half or so. There are nice parks and wooded trails we go to.

Garden. We are starting a raised bed veggie garden this year.

Watch movies or TV series on Netflix. We don't watch cable but we have some series we really like.

My DH likes to play a game on his iPad. Seeker's something, I forget the exact name.

Don't ask me about ruts...mine run pretty deep, but they're velvet lined so I'm happy. :)

I have joined a book club at the local library.

I did enjoy my mindfulness meditation class a lot.

When I get bored in the evening, I do pick up a craft project...in fact I need to get back to that afghan for DH I'm crochet'ing! For awhile this winter, GFs and I were getting together for a "knitting circle" and it was fun to just sit and chat for an hour or so while we kept our hands busy.

I also love old movies so have been recording them to watch in the evenings as so much of the rest of TV is a wasteland.

How about groceries? I find the stores are really empty in the evenings so they're a breeze to get through vs on a weekend.

I was just thinking this afternoon that, once my children are gone and I have free time in the evenings, I'm going to take voice lessons. I love to sing but I'm a terrible singer. When no one is home, I put ear plugs in and belt out my favorite songs to my heart's content. But I cannot listen to myself.

Gardening will keep you busy and is quite satisfying.

Look around your community. Here now that our weather is getting nicer, there are a lot of weeknight "concerts in the park" and other outdoor events.

Through the late spring summer months DH and I attend our two grandsons soccer games, which we love to do. I even actually go to their practices, My DIL and I get along great so we have fun talking. Right now I am learning how to paint with acrylics so I do some of that. Other evenings in the nice weather DH and I go for walks, movies and dinner. In the winter we pretty much are home bodies and dont venture out too much in the evenings.

My whole day, when I'm not doing paperwork for our business accounts or volunteer work for a rescue, is fun time. Puttering around the house is fun because when I had my shop it was all work all the time, or so it seemed. I am doing some watercolor painting and sketching. I watch a lot of you tube videos on drawing and painting. I have a new iPad Pro so I spend time sketching on it and have fun using some coloring programs on it. I read every day but usually at bed time. I would love to do jigsaw puzzles but my kitties would have a field day knocking the pieces to the floor.

Martial arts?

Let me give a shout out for your local women's club. I've met some very good friends through my club. Our once a month meeting includes a program with a speaker and a brief business meeting. We also have social outings, book club, a gourmet group, a walking group, and we do a few service projects during the year. My club is a General Federation of Women's Club (GFWC) and their website lists clubs in every state. I'm sure your area has a women's club of some kind, even if it isn't associated with the GFWC.

When the weather permits we are outside usually till dark or near. Even if we are just sitting out front (where we may see a neighbor), or in the back on the patio or out at the firepit, we are enjoying time together and of course, with "the pup". We also garden (flowers and small veggie garden). We usually have some kind of project going on around the house and might spend some time on that. I work part-time and I like to have my days off for fun things, so we do some of our house and yardwork in the evenings. We occasionally get together with friends, although more-so on the weekends, or run down and visit my dad. We sometimes go for walks in the evenings too. There is always the occasional evening where we just want to "flop" and relax!

I wish it was something exciting to inspire you, but I seem to have fallen into a rut myself. DH is now getting home from his clinic around 6:30PM. We have dinner, and around 7:30 he heads into his study to dictate charts, return patient calls, etc. (Don't ever think your family doc comes home and sits around for the rest of the evening. I wish!). I do dishes, work on my healthful eating website some (researching ideas for new recipes to try) and then iron his shirt for the next day while I watch the local late evening news. I read in bed until he comes to bed around 10PM. When the weather gets a bit warmer, I'll sit out in my gardens for a bit. We live too far from town to get together with my girlfriends in the evenings or go work out. It takes me about 30 minutes each way. I don't watch any tv shows in the evenings either, except parts of The Voice, when it's on. Oh, and we record Last Man Standing and watch it here and there. I don't like to walk my dogs in the evenings, as coyotes are always around and can get more aggressive/ emboldened then. We also have mountain lions, rattlers, bobcats and sometimes bears that can be in the vicinity. Even with my male Doberman, I don't feel completely safe. Friday and Saturday evenings are more fun, as we grill out, watch movies, go out to dinner, gallery openings and/or meet up with friends. As I said, I'm in a rut.

I have book club one a month and I go to core class once a week but other than that I too am in a RUT.

I do read in the evening and unfortunately tv choices are getting worse and worse. I won't pay for Netflix. A friend of mine took up jewellery making which she really enjoys and she does that in the evening.

Add me to the RUT list. I am thankful that I have gotten into a routine of generally 3 to 4 nights, I take a zumba class at the gym while DH works out there. then we come home and go in separate rooms usually, either watching tv, talking on the phone, doing laundry, internetting and facebooking way more time than should be (I am more guilty of that). I find that I just pretty much sit on the love seat with the laptop or tablet and go to town. I love to read but somehow at night I am a bit too tired. I do work full time.

I find that on evenings when I do not go to the gym, I am not terribly productive anyway. (kind of disappointing). I do go to a book club once a month and very rarely meet a friend for dinner.

Very rut-ish. not proud and not happy about it.

Lynn, our schedule is like yours in that we eat around 6:30 to 7:00 and then i usually have grading, etc., to do. We may watch some shows or sports. I do my WO's in the mornings mostly. We also go outside and take care of the garden.

I belong to a women's political group and my car club, but those only meet once a month.

My friends and I have walked together for 25 years! We used to go at 7:00 most evenings, but we try to go earlier now that we are retired. I do a lot of volunteering. Some of the meetings have been eliminated because we can now " conduct business" via email. I am a volunteer genealogist at the historical society. I really enjoy it. We are currently very short-handed so I am spending a lot of time there. In the evenings I end up responding to a lot of emails.

We work outside during the nice weather. I volunteer at all of the Red Cross blood drives in our town. I do not watch TV, so I read and play WWF....my biggest addiction....

Well, I used to go out dancing four or five nights a week into the wee hours of the morning. THAT was fun! Now, I'm sad to say that most of my weeknight "fun" centers around episodes of the Real Housewives. Don't judge me. I'm addicted.

If I didn't turn the dang tv on I might not be in a rut! When I worked in retail years ago, it involved evening hours. I used to hate that! Now that i'm retired i've fallen into the watching tv rut. If I don't turn it on, I can stay busy for a good part of the day with cleaning/organizational tasks. If I go out to the garage and start working on a project, I can stay out there all day. Today I went out about 3 and didn't come in until almost 8, only because I was hungry. It's because of the space I rent at a local antique mall that I have projects, not home fix it projects.

Have you ever painted a piece of furniture or a picture frame? If you have a craigslist, thriftstore, or garage sales, you can find things very inexpensively. My sis recently took it up as a hobby, and has been on a roll for the last couple of months. She's been lucky at finding things that are very cheap~$5 for a cabinet, and sold it for $100! A couple of coats of paint, and a coat of poly, and you have a 'new' piece of furniture ready to list on craigslist and resell. Easy, and it's a year round hobby too.

I sing in a choir that rehearses one night a week, and usually put in some time at least one other night working on the music on my own.

I used to take belly dancing classes once a week. I know you said you don't like group exercise classes, but the dance class is really about learning a skill, and I really got to know my classmates over time. I did American Tribal Style, which is a group improvisational style. We'd dance in groups of 2 to 4 dancers, where one was the leader and chose the moves, and the others followed her cues. Totally fun and creative. I had to stop because of a low back injury, or I would still be doing it.

I go to the gym three nights a week with a workout partner and we lift weights. We're doing a program from a book called "Strong" by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove. I'm pushing 50 with the accompanying aches and pains and have seen a marked benefit from the program in normal daily living (less pain going down stairs, I don't get shin splints anymore, etc)

In terms of stuff I do sitting in front of the computer, I've been taking French classes online at Duolingo since January, and I've been doing online coursework in Financial Planning (lots of reading and homework for that offline as well).

At one point I downloaded MuseScore, which is musical composition software, and arranged a few songs for choir. That was fun. My daughter recently used it to write a piece for four piece strings.

I'm pretty much never bored.

Being in a rut isn't the same as being bored. I may be in a rut in that I do the same things but I am never bored. Perhaps I'm boring ;)

In addition to saying she was in a rut, the OP said, "Basically I'm bored several evenings a week and I need a hobby." So, while I agree they aren't the same thing, boredom was also an issue.

line dance....at our local senior center. Free. 2 days a week for class, then a dance on 2-3 Saturday nights per month.

GF is big into country western line dancing...

Do you want to get OUT of the house? Solitary or with a group? Book club at the library, invite the readers to your house for dessert. Walking or hiking group, start at your house with snacks and go from there. Movie group, ditto. Take a class that interests you... cooking, sewing, baking, painting, audit at the nearest college or online History, English lit, photography, geology.......

Do you want to stay IN the house? Garment sewing, quilting, needle crafts, drawing, fabric painting. Gardening. Furniture refinishing.

Running or working out relaxes me. DH does his workouts during the day since he is retired. Our DGD plays on her high school varsity soccer team so we're usually at her games twice a week but that is winding down. In the fall she plays club ball.

Now that spring and summer are here, there are a lot of concerts in the park during the week and on weekends, arts on the square events, beer tastings, and other events we enjoy. A few of my GFs and I get together for dinner now and then too which is always fun. And I have my gardens to tend to which is mostly maintenance here and there right now.

I work from home and live 15+ minutes from "town" so I have to find reasons to leave the house. I do yoga Monday and Wednesday evenings and Pilates on Thursday evenings. The other days, I try to walk and run outside for at least 1 hour (or 5 miles). Weekends, I try to get my bicycle out for a good solid ride (10-20 miles). I've been neglecting my motorcycle and need to get that out for some rides too....weather permitting!

I stopped reading books a while ago even though I adore reading. I need to MOVE more. This getting old stuff is for the birds! LOL!

Legomom, we are in the same rut! I spend way too much time playing mindless games on my iPad. For a long time I blamed changing jobs - getting used to the new commute, the new work environment, etc. - but since I had my first anniversary at the new job in January I guess I need to get over that excuse!

I used to spend every evening working on some kind of needlework project. I have several in process, so just need to get in gear and work on them!

(I need to put myself on time-out from the stupid iPad, too. LOL)

Donna

Thank you all for the good ideas. And thank you for letting me know that your evenings aren't always filled with earth shattering memorable excitement! I do enjoy my quiet evenings, but they had gotten a little too common - even for an introvert like me.

I am going to have to make an effort to look for things to do and join. My town is small and not known for having a lot to do - but I'm sure once I start looking I'll find more. I'm going to have to leave my hermit comfort zone and try some things. I love to dance, but I haven't heard of anything like that. That would be good for me - active and fun.

Several people mentioned gardening, which is a good idea too. We have so many deer though - they eat everything. I tried to put in a garden several years ago and ended up having to screen it in. That's a lot of expense to have a raised screened in garden.

About this time last year I made plans to cut way back and change my work responsibilities - mostly because my job had morphed into something that I no longer enjoyed everyday. But since then, we have had several sicknesses, employees with family emergencies and a key employee leave. That has thrown me back into the drudgery part of my job I was trying to get out of. I am of course replaceable, but somewhat in charge and working for family, so that's harder than it might be otherwise.

Anyway, sometimes I want my evenings to be relaxing, but sometimes I need them to fun. I think I need to change my mindset to say yes to more things and see where that leads me. And looking at my calendar last night, starting next week I am very busy for the next several weeks and then summer will be here. There's always more to do then.

Also - last night I put my phone away. I do think I have a slight screen addiction. It is so easy to get caught up on reading something online, following the rabbit trail and several hours later you're still there. Which can be ok, but at the end of the evening, I was not grateful for my relaxing evening, I was mad at myself for wasting time. So - less screens for me hopefully!

I'm retired and a morning person, so I prefer to do stuff in the daytime: walking, gardening, projects around the house, getting together with friends. Some evenings I have meetings or choir rehearsal. But mostly I like to pour myself a glass of wine (or beer in the summer) and watch the Giants on TV. Most games, other than Sunday, are night games and I'm set.

I am definitely in a rut, I prefer to think of it as a routine, but I am never bored! I love being retired!

Last year I decided I was in a rut too. I found a Meetup group with one of my interests and joined. Now I'm one of the organizers and spend time researching things we can do and organizing meetings.

I have made an effort to meet friends more often for drinks and conversation after work. My work is 30 minutes from home and meeting others usually involves going even further away from home but I'm okay with that.

When at home I like to read. I work in my gardens a lot too. I used to do needlework but I've lost interest in that in the past few years. I think I need a new hobby too. A friend offered to teach me stained glass making and I think I will take her up on that.

This! Along with walking the dog, visiting with DH reading and a few TV shows. Playing with plans and exploring furnishings, etc for our retirement home. Bridge every other week. Definitely in a rut, but with a 45 minute commute and a stressful job, that's about all I can handle for now. Ask this again in about 20 months and hopefully I'll be out of my rut (and my job). I'll keep DH and the dog though.

I decided at age 69 that I wanted to do something for myself that I have always wanted to do. So, I bought a beginner motorcycle, took a motorcycle course, passed and never looked back. Today at age 76 I still ride, but on a three-wheeled trike. Love it!

I've been bored to death also these past few months....winter, etc. I love going to yoga, but lately can't get myself there on Wednesday night anymore. I'm going to Book Club once a month, but barely making it through the books. I'm trying to be more active, walking several times a wk, but could really use some suggestions to motivate me to come out of the rut that I have gotten into over the winter. Thanks in advance everyone!