I'm glad to see you back...and I'm very glad to hear how things are going. To answer your question...no, it's not unusual to be turned on in situations where you no nothing is going to happen...that happens to me too. But, if I do find I get turned on then I'm more likely to want to make sure something happens later on.
Good for you for putting the book down and doing something you knew he'd like....I'm not a big sportsfan myself, but my H LOVES fast cars, so occasionally I will go to the track with him. We have a vette that he loves to do time-trials with....this is a HUGE snoozer for me, but he loves it...and he really enjoys it when I go with him....so I go every now and then...honestly I don't go all the time the noise really hurts my ears (and I hate earplugs)...but I do make an effort to go much more often than I'd like to LOL....it makes him happy.
My H also bucked the "schedule" he doesn't like the idea of one either. Of course he's LD and for him it probably puts the pressure of "having" to do something; whereas he'd like it to be spontaneous...although he never is LOL. But he's trying, I'll definitely give him that
Sorry to hear MrDoglover is not feeling well, hopefully he'll be feeling better soon!