How much for a quarter?

It's Friday early afternoon and I've just come back up stairs after putting several loads of laundry in the dryer. 5 quarters has equaled 40 minutes for roughly 2 years at 8 minutes a quarter. Today, my 5 quarters yielded 35 minutes. 1/8 of our drying value has disappeared right before our very eyes without nary a mention.

I went up to the owner and asked about the new pricing and he matter-of-factly said, 7 minutes per quarter. Then thinking that I had done the math wrong, just nodded and walked away confused, going over the multiplication tables in my head. Just to make sure I wasn't crazy, I used the 9x5 benchmark by curling my thumb - yes 45 - I wasn't going crazy. I guess what I had expected was an apology or an explanation: 'due to our increasing energy prices we have been forced to defray some of our expenses to you the consumer.' But no, nothing more than 7 per quarter. I don't blame him.

I guess 50 more cents for two loads at the dryer won't put too much of a dent in our budget as would say filling up our tanks if we drove.

The picture above is captioned 'dancing at the laundromat' - doesn't really apply here - but then again, for that extra 50 cents, maybe they'll throw in lessons. Now there's an idea.