Infamous Left Turners

This afternoon I got my first look at the infamous left-turner. I was on a two lane road that narrows back down to one lane and. As I was looking to merge, a white duelly truck turned left across both lanes and slowed almost to a stop, with two lanes of traffic coming at him. I'm fine and there was enough room for me to slow down without an emergency stop. I still don't understand why you would turn and stop in the road, with or without oncoming vehicles.
Other than that little blip, today was good. I saw a lot of other bikes out on the roads, even another little Ninja. I also got a chance to think about a couple of things. First, one of the most challenging aspects of riding (after learning how to turn at low speeds, brake effectively, get a feel for counter-steering, ok so low on the list) is selecting the correct gear for the situation. Fortunately, my bike is good for helping a rider get a feel for that and also to forgive any noob mistakes I can make. I'm getting a better feel for when to shift down to keep up the right amount of power for a situation, but when I forget or make the wrong decision it has the ability to pull steadily and predictably from 3000 rpm to 13500 rpm. This in and of itself is a good reason to keep in mind one needs to match the bike to one's level of expertise and no higher.