BTW, I did have the chance to check the offsets with $#, and you were right… a big whopping offset that has made project setup miserable. I was able to clear the offset with the G10 command, so will verify tomorrow if it is working like it should.
Many thanks for your help with this!!! 
Nice. Was surprised I didn’t catch it earlier but your initial status report message didn’t indicate the WCO so didn’t occur to me.
Glad that’s out of the way and you can now get on with lasering.
Many thanks berainlb !!! Your diagnosis and suggestions were spot-on, and cured the odd positioning behavior.