The Smoke Detector

Apparently I am being defeated by the smoke detector.  There is one in my bedroom that I didn't notice until I got home today and it was beeping.  So I go I stand on my night stand to get it down to change the battery.  Except I can't seem to twist it off to get to where the battery.  It even has a thing on the front saying which way to twist but it doesn't seem to want to budge.  So I am defeated by the smoke detector.  I don't have a replacement battery anyway but I could at least take it down and stop the beeping.  It might drive me insane tonight.  We shall see.