Yes the battery had run "wet". I suspect it was sulphated up pretty bad.

Anyways I got the battery in and it fires right up like soooo easily now...even today when it was 25 degrees here. And...guess what...ammeter is DEAD center once the battery is topped off.

My system is wired correctly, period. All loads are taken from the alternator side of the ammeter so it's honest.

I check my charging voltage and it is closer to 14.9V which is higher than I'd like. I traced the voltage drop to the neg battery cable itself which read ~2.5 ohms. Everything else was 0 ohms. I appears my negative cable is coming apart a bit as I wiggled it good and it dropped back down. I guess I am ordering a new negative cable.

The battery was the issue for sure. I didn't realize how fricken slow my starter had gotten.