Finally got a chance to work on this - yes, hydroboost issue, appears to have been air in the system. Once the new batt was in, started the truck and confirmed non-boosted brakes and no power steering. Depressed and released the brakes about 10 times, and steered left/right in between each one, then poof, everything started working again - was very obvious. Fluid level back to normal (a little low due to the overflow). Still plan to flush the system though, the ps fluid is pretty crappy. (Hatzie, my 8.1L has the long fill tube extension that is up at hood-level almost, not down by the fan like the 6.0 - and it STILL overflowed from that thing somehow, very strange!) As for the electrical gremlins, once the new batt was in, I did a cursory check for parasitic drain - meter showed 0.0 mA (which makes me want to get my meter checked out...
seriously, I want to see if I've blown the internal fuse for the Amp meter function.. I'm not yet convinced I don't have a drain) but will take another look tomorrow and see how things are going. One thing I did discover that was always on (but has been on for years) is the tiny little power indicator light on a GPS 12V power plug. Though not connected to a the GPS, the plug itself had a glowing light that is always on. Somehow never really noticed this before until I turned off all the lights in the barn and looked into the truck to make sure nothing was on. I still don't think that is related to this issue - because like I said, it's been on for years, but was interesting I never really noticed it til I started looking. Anyway - good for now, few more things to check out. Thanks again for the input - very much appreciated.